Your List of Small Things

[Lordmonkus]

What I would like to do in this thread is to get your list of small things / improvements that can be made to Launchbox / BigBox. New features are all good and sexy but adding new features without some refinment after the users get their hands on them and figure out the limitations and flaws is not a good thing.

I am not talking about new features you would like to see added at all, I am only talking about features already existing in Launchbox right now and how you would  like to see them improved upon. I know some of you probably have a list a mile long so please try and keep it short or at least in order of importance to you.

My list right now would be as follows:

1: Improved playlists. The ability to have categories to sort playlists into and even sub-categories would go a long way in improving the functionality of playlists immensely.

2: Bulk edit rom paths.

3: Import shortcut files for PC games without the need to choose an emulator when importing. This would make importing PC games so much faster and more intuitive than it currently is.

4: Save / remember import settings. It is a pain when importing and you have to check or uncheck the same boxes every time for the things you want or don't want like the images.

5: Fully editable controller and keyboard functionality in BigBox.

6: Drag and Drop order of platforms listed in the left had column.

7: Edit meta data within "list view" mode or in the the audit tool.

8: Bulk edit additional apps.

 

[Lordmonkus]

Here is the compiled and tidied up list of "Small Improvements". I have the most requested ones at the top and marked with an *, the ones with more than one * are ones that got several requests. Each * represents the number of people + the original request. So for example if something is marked with ***** that means 5 people plus the original request which = 6 requests.

I have tried to group up some requests that while not exactly the same as another but were in the same sort of improvement such as the "Additional Apps Improvements" 

I also then attempted to organize the requests with only one person making the request in order of what I felt were more beneficial to the most people.

Update July 17 2017: As @Jason Carr implements features from the list I will indicate they have been added in. While they may not be in the current stable builds they will have at least been added in during a live stream or a beta release.

Update Febuary 25 2018: Cleaned up the list removing items that have been implemented. Added things to this main list that have been posted since the last maintenance. Moved planned and in progress items to their own section in this list.

Planned:

Improved playlists. Categories to sort playlists into and even sub-categories. added
    -add game to playlist from edit game details window

A checkbox in the edit emulator box to hide the mouse cursor.

List View in Launchbox improvements
     - Choose which columns are shown / hidden (implemented as of 8.2 beta release 2)
     - Edit meta data within "list view" mode

When importing MAME roms, an option to combine parents and clones would be nice. Currently they can only be combined if the names match. It would be nice to automatically combine stuff like Pac Man and Puck Man, preferably with some kind of region preference option. added

Add a user defined timed control lockout during the loading game screen in Bigbox to help avoid multiple selection of games.

The option to have a different generic noimage.png per platform that replaces the Launchbox logo image if you have no artwork for that game.

The Clean up images tool to be a clean up media tool and include video/music/manuals that no longer have an associated game. Implemented

End of Planned list

 

*****
Fully editable controller and keyboard functionality in BigBox.
    -In bigbox, map the 'mark as favorite' to a key or joypad button rather than go into the details page and selecting it from there.
    -Analog stick deadzone
    
***
Ability to hide platform.

**
Animated Gif support for things like clear logos, marquees and banners

**
Additional Apps Improvements 
    -Bulk edit additional apps.
    -Add the ability to apply an additional app directly to a whole Platform 
    -Fix consolidated roms stacking their additional apps into the primary rom.
    -Additional apps being sorted in ascending order in BigBox. Example: If you have a Disc 02 and Disc 03, in LB, it will be in ascending order in the game's   right-click menu. However, in BigBox, it lists them in descending order (e.g.: Disc 03 will come before Disc 02)
    -When launching an additional app before or after the main application, the ability to set a timer delay to allow the first program to load up properly before launching the main application.
    
**
No repeating games in platforms with short list of games (set custom number).
   -Right now short game lists will simply keep looping, would like an option to not loop and just have it go from start to end.

    
**
Marking a game as complete in Big Box and navigating through game lists alphabetically in Launchbox.

**
Option to only play videos once instead of looping. Gameplay and startup videos.

**
When editing the path locations for images for a particular platform - the ability to tick a box to apply the same directory path to all, rather than manually editing every single one.

*
AutoHotKey per platform and per game.

*
Clean up / rearrange tools menu. Certain things should be more logically organized such as the Import Roms, it should be at the top of the tools menu instead of 2/3rds down. Also a Simple and Advanced mode would be really nice to have to reduce confusion for beginners.

*
Drag and Drop order of platforms listed in the left had column.
    -Hide/Unhide any platform.
    -Show only hidden games.
    -Drag and drop images into the Edit Platforms window.

*
Controller Automation button combo for the keyboard keys to close out emulators. This would be extremely useful for arcade sticks that use a keyboard encoder such as the X-Arcade Tankstick.

*
While in the "Edit Game" window, to have a way of going to the Next game and the Previous game (i.e. have an "Apply" button to save changes without having to exit out of it, and two arrows left and right).

 

 

Playlists and platforms in multiple categories. Implemented

Add categories to the fields column drop down in the auto populate playlists.

 Bigbox "Performance Mode" setting for lower power computers. Most performance friendly settings (medium image quality, low quality does not improve performance).

Startup BigBox on a specific Platform or Playlist.

Remove game from within BigBox mode.

The option to allow the selected title in the basic vertical rom list (BigBox) stay centered (instead of scrolling all the way down or up).

Search Improvements
    -Allow Bigbox search keyboard to have unrestricted movement (cursor wraparound).
    -In LB, let the Search filter box work with regular expression type of searches. i often want this word in the name but not that word. so that might be like:  soccer -fifa  (this would include games with soccer in the name but not if fifa is in the name). and be able to use: and, or, etc
    -Make Launchbox search reset to the top of the page on each new search.
    
Improved Audit tool.
    -A favourites field
    -Give the audit system a media selection menu before auditing.
    -Stop the audit system from consolidating images into the wrong column (background images, clear logos and box - back currently count as box front.
    -Add all image folders to audit (currently box -back and a few others are missing/consolidated.)
    -(if the above issue with audit are due to view priority settings then I suggest separating the two as its confusing to have image priorities control  which column(s) an image will be in the audit window.
    
Force Image Cache.
    -"Shutdown When Done" option in BigBox.
    -Force Image Cache within LaunchBox, instead of just BigBox.
    
Attract Mode Improvemnts
    -Shuffle platforms at the start.
    -Attract mode adjust scroll speed and a check in the code to make sure that the same title is not landed on twice in a row.
    
Bigbox setting (or enhancement to existing lock setting) that doesn't let you get out of the platform and game wheels other than to unlock. So not even be able to change the platform view.

Right click game 'open video folder' option in LB.

Add @Grila's platform clear logo fading in and out code to the default theme.

Checkbox during the import wizard to not import any game that can't be attached to database id, and/or not import a game with no media.

Have an option in the BigBox menu to turn off platform device images. This would really help for the default theme in the fullscreen platform wheel view because the device images do not look good in that view.

Ability to have a option to prioritize different music over video sound per platform.

Change Launchbox scraper to allow European titles to have Le, La, Die at the start or end of a rom name.

Different view for platform categories and platforms.

"Smart" platform change. What I mean by this is if I currently have games in a certain platform, if I decide to change them to a different platform then their images and video do not necessarily move over to the appropriate directories for the newly assigned platform.

The ability to delete game images from the edit window with a single click (a "Remove Image" button) or key press. This would save a good bit of time versus right-clicking and then clicking  "Remove Image."

Theme specific Game Art for a theme. like BigForce Theme By Grila such a awesome theme but its so heavily reliant on that specific game cover style and replacing all covers for using one theme isnt fun.

Download and scrape metadata and media from Steam like we can with videos.

Keep all games selected after bulk editing. Implemented

Allow remove from playlist when not viewing that particular playlist. Add to playlist pops out a submenu, why can't there be a Remove from playlist that does the same?

Separate image priorities in LaunchBox and Big Box. In LB, I'd prefer not having fanart in the background, while I might want it there in BB.

Big Box option to use random game videos for playlists when no playlist video exists. The platform version of this option doesn't seem to work for playlists.

Parental filter.

Alternate name in metadata (useful for searching for games) example: Firepower 2000 / SWIV, Contra / Probotector.

Option when sorting games alphabetically to include "the" or "a". Game titles starting with the "the" and "a" would be in T or A.

Multiple PDFs for manuals.

BigBox hotkey to show video fullscreen like there is for images.

Weblinks under the game details page.
         -These could be added under the "edit game" option and open out in a little box (in BigBox) like the Additional Apps do. The user could manually add links to Wikipedia, Wiki pages or online guides etc.

Screensaver mode to go along with sleep mode

Restart BigBox button BigBox

Filter the genre or just showing favourites or all, by pressing a "switch filter“ button. So I would have a all games view and only my favourites... with this i would have the chance to collect all games but during gaming session with friends I would only open the best of list.

Remember image importing for Steam games.

[neil9000]

I was thinking maybe a checkbox during the import wizard to not import any game that can't be attached to database id, and/or not import a game with no media. It can be a pain to sort through that after the fact, weeding out the trash on import automatically would be very helpful. 

[ckp]

- Lordmonkus items #2 and #3 are HUGE ones for me personally. #3 is probably my NUMBER 1 wish. 

- Lordmonkus item #4

- my biggest wish: i want to drag and drop pc game exe or shortcuts and roms to the platform pane that is displayed and have those imported to that platform with default emulator (for non PC games) and my preset import settings (from Lordmonkus #3) without asking or prompting me with anything. just do it.

- A Bigbox setting (or enhancement to existing lock setting) that doesn't let you get out of the platform and game wheels other than to unlock. so not even be able to change the platform view.

- A Bigbox "light" setting for lower power computers. So, just being able to enable a low power computer settings would automatically set all BB settings best for a lower power computer, but still look good enough to want to use BB. This one isn't big for me right now (might be later), but it seems like a LOT of people would benefit.

- launch game with any chosen emulator on the fly

- in Launchbox, a simple Loading... splash while games unzip

- drag and drop a video or box art file on top of the game icon in LB, even if one already exists and make it the primary. drag and drop a platform video on top of the platform in LB

- Platform level ahk tab

- right click game 'open video folder' option in LB

- not showing repeating names inside the BB game wheel when there is only like one to a few in there 

- Hide/Unhide any platform

- in LB, let the Search filter box work with regular expression type of searches. i often want this word in the name but not that word. so that might be like:  soccer -fifa  (this would include games with soccer in the name but not if fifa is in the name). and be able to use: and, or, etc

 

[JamesBond@ge]

Audit system. I'm a massive fan and It has saved me countless hours.

1. "Box - Back" given it's own field instead of being classified as a "Box Image".

2. "Screenshot - Game Title", "Screenshot - High Scores", "Screenshot - Game Over", "Screenshot - Game Select" given their own fields instead of being lumped in together in the "Screenshot Images" field.

Conclusion: Just different classes of images given their own separate fields.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RetroArch.

1. Launch different config's on the fly. Enter the different config's for a chosen platform in "Manage Emulators", and then be able to select them on the fly in BigBox in the game information screen.

The more I think about this one, the more I want. Holy smoke. I could get so creative with those configs and not have to have separate custom platforms to use them. This is probably my number one wish.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Force Image Cache.

1. "Shutdown When Done" option in BigBox.

2. Force Image Cache within LaunchBox, instead of just BigBox.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Attract Mode.

1. Shuffle platforms at the start.

As of now (7.10), my BigBox starts up on boot, my default view is Platforms in a text list, and will go into Attract Mode in 10 seconds. It never shuffles to start with though, so always goes into Amstrad GX4000. It comes out and then shuffles as it should. I'm getting sick of Amstrad GX4000 though lol ;-)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Idea's From Others:

1. From kmoney: Being able to change ROM paths in the bulk edit wizard.

2. From lordmonkus: Fully editable controller and keyboard functionality in BigBox.

3. From lordmonkus: Save / remember import settings.

4. From Rincewind: A checkbox in the edit emulator box to hide the mouse cursor.

5. From ckp: Launch game with any chosen emulator on the fly

Edited July 2, 2017 by JamesBond@ge

[FoxyMonty]

List of Improvements:

[Will edit as I think of more]

Platform Folders

1. Editing the path locations for images for a particular platform; add the ability to tick a box to apply the same directory path to all, rather than having to manually edit 30 images folders for every platform.

2. Allow the ability to tick a box next to platform folders to turn off the creating of a folder. For particular platforms - I do not need a folder for everything and would rather not have empty folders everywhere. You can currently delete them however they will be recreated.

Additional Apps

3. When launching an additional app before or after the main application - the ability to set a timer delay to allow the first program to load up properly before launching the main application.

4. Currently you can add an additional app to launch before or after a game. - Add the ability to bulk apply an additional app to several games. 

5. Add the ability to apply an additional app directly to a whole Platform.

Edited July 6, 2017 by FoxyMonty

[Lordmonkus]

Keep throwing your ideas here. Once we get enough I will do my best to compile it all into a simple and easy to read and dissect list for @Jason Carr to determine which would be just some tweaks or require some major work.

[kmoney]

I see lots of great improvements listed above and some others I would like to see are in no particular order.

1. Add @Grila's platform clear logo fading in and out code to the default theme as it would really take the fullscreen platform wheel view up a notch.

2. Have an option in the BigBox menu to turn off platform device images. This would really help for the default theme in the fullscreen platform wheel view because the device images do not look good in that view.

3. I am not sure if this is simple or not but being able to to have the ability to have a option to prioritize different music over video sound per platform would be awesome

4. Being able to change rom paths in the bulk edit wizard

5. The option to have a different generic noimage.png per platform that replaces the Launchbox logo image if you have no artwork for that game

[Lordmonkus]

Damnit, I totally forgot about bulk edit rom paths. now I have to edit my original post to have that one.

People can feel free to add the same things they would like to see as other peoples as this would help me to add some "weight" to those entries when I compile what everyone is looking for improvements on.

[syntax_X]

1. Allow Bigbox search keyboard to have unrestricted movement

2. Make Launchbox search reset to the top of the page on each new search

3. Give the audit system a media selection menu before auditing.

4. Stop the audit system from consolidating images into the wrong column (background images, clear logos and box - back currently count as box front.
5. Add all image folders to audit (currently box -back and a few others are missing/consolidated.)
    (if the above issue with audit are due to view priority settings then I suggest separating the two as its confusing to have image priorities control  which column(s) an image will be in the audit window.

6. Fully editable controller and keyboard functionality in BigBox.

7. Platform/LB/BB/null emulators level ahk tab

8. This is a really good idea >
"my biggest wish: i want to drag and drop pc game exe or shortcuts and roms to the platform pane that is displayed and have those imported to that platform with default emulator (for non PC games) and my preset import settings (from Lordmonkus #3) without asking or prompting me with anything. just do it. "

9. Change Launchbox scraper to allow European titles to have Le, La,Die at the start or end of a rom name

10. Add a user defined timed control lockout during the loading game screen in Bigbox to help avoid multiple selection of games.

11. Bulk Edit additional apps

12. Allow platform level additional apps

13. Allow additional apps to be executed on emulator exit/shutdown
14. Fix consolidated roms stacking their additional apps into the primary rom.

15. Fix Bigbox losing focus when exiting emulators from time to time(requires left mouse click to fix)

16. I know we are not supposed to talk about things we would like added but a crc32/sha1 based rom checker that renames roms to the Launchbox Database format would be sweet.

17. Right click on a game and have the option to play same named games from other systems
 

 

Edited July 2, 2017 by syntax_X

[Zombeaver]

I'd like to see the option to append custom command line parameters in a game entry (rather than a full replace as it currently works) as I cover in greater detail here. There are a lot of scenarios in which this could be useful, from specifying multiple disks via command line ala Atari St games with Steem or for things like specifying a custom config for PCSX2 via command line.

Bulk adding additional apps would be nice as well. This isn't a huge deal by any means, certainly now that SSF isn't top-dog for Saturn emulation, but there are other scenarios in which it could be useful as well.

#2 and #3 on @lordmonkus are pretty big for me as well.

Right-click "run with emulator..." and be able to use any emulator in your list would be nice - this is something quite a few people have asked for in other threads as well; and I assume it's what @ckp is referring to above as "on the fly".

[bundangdon]

I've seen a lot of great ideas from other users here and I would just like to share a few of mine that I've been thinking about for a while

1. The option to allow the selected title in the basic vertical rom list (BigBox) stay centered (instead of scrolling all the way down or up)

2. The ability to use custom box images (in bulk) for various platforms/systems when there are no images available. (instead of using the generic 'rubik's cube' bigbox image that appears in its place). I've mentioned this idea a few times before and it got a lot of positive feedback from other users.

3, Also, I very much like the idea of clicking on right-click and be able to choose other emulators, as it has been mentioned by zombeaver and others before 

4. The ability to change rom paths in the bulk edit wizard (mentioned also by other users)

5. Add in any of the features available in RocketLauncher, and LaunchBox/BigBox will not only be the greatest frontend, but the greatest work of programming in the 21st century!

Edited July 2, 2017 by bundangdon

[Lordmonkus]

6 minutes ago, bundangdon said:

5. Add in any of the features available in RocketLauncher

That is most certainly beyond the scope of this thread and what I am hoping to achieve with this thread. I do want to keep it focused on polishing of current features rather than asking for complete new ones.

I do appreciate the input and agree with the other 4 on your wishlist.

[Rincewind]

This is a great thread and it's good to see that others are requesting some of the same things. 

1. In LaunchBox the ability to right click the images in the details info (right-hand side) and delete them.
2. A checkbox in the edit emulator box to hide the mouse cursor.

 

[bundangdon]

3 hours ago, lordmonkus said:

That is most certainly beyond the scope of this thread and what I am hoping to achieve with this thread. I do want to keep it focused on polishing of current features rather than asking for complete new ones.

I do appreciate the input and agree with the other 4 on your wishlist.

Just wishful thinking

[Steve39]

• I'd love the option to just press a key in bigbox to delete the currently selected game from my games list.
  I'd find it so much easier to whittle down my games list if I could startup a game, realise it was not my thing and then quickly delete it from my queue.
• in bigbox, map the 'mark as favorite' to a key or joypad button rather than go into the details page and selecting it from there.
• the option to have a 'no-image.png' for each platform that replaces the current 'no image' default graphic.

If any of these have already been implemented and past me by, please let me know.

Edited July 2, 2017 by Steve39
added an item

[Charco]

The startup video feature needs to be revisited. The video should only play once and not loop.

The Launchbox feature of marking a game as complete needs to be added to Big Box and the Big Box feature of navigating through game lists alphabetically needs to be added to Launchbox.

For playlists, I'd like to be able to save the results of a search as a new playlist. 

Big Box currently remembers the last used view per platform, however you cannot have a different view for platform categories and platforms.

Edited July 2, 2017 by Charco

[kmoney]

@Charco I asked @Jason Carr about the startup videos issues during one of the streams and he said that he still plans to look at the startup video issues soon since it was voted up high on the last poll.

[Zombeaver]

On 7/2/2017 at 3:49 AM, Rincewind said:

In LaunchBox the ability to right click the images in the details info (right-hand side) and delete them.

Yep, this would be nice. When you're just quickly going through and auditing multiple games it'd be a lot faster than editing each entry.

On 7/2/2017 at 3:49 AM, Rincewind said:

A checkbox in the edit emulator box to hide the mouse cursor.

There are a number of options here, but admittedly none that are natively built into LB. The easiest one that I typically recommend is MouseMove - you can add the following into the emulator's AHK section and it'll move your mouse to the very bottom right of the screen so that it isn't visible:

MouseMove, 1920, 1080

This assumes you're using a resolution of 1920 x 1080. If you're using a different one, you can adjust it accordingly. NoMousy is another option, but MouseMovie is nice because it doesn't require any sort of external app at all.

On 7/2/2017 at 7:18 AM, Steve39 said:

in bigbox, map the 'mark as favorite' to a key or joypad button rather than go into the details page and selecting it from there.

I was thinking this had already been implemented but I guess not. I know it's something that's been asked for quite a few times.

20 hours ago, Charco said:

The startup video feature needs to be revisited. The video should only play once and not loop.

Definitely. The startup delay time really isn't ideal - for one, intros typically aren't second-exact so it's never quite right, second, the startup time begins as soon as you start Big Box and not as soon as the video starts which means if there's a second or two before the video starts (which happens every once in a while, but it's inconsistent), it'll get cut off early, third you have to adjust the time any time you change videos. Obviously this is very non-vital/first-world-problems territory, but it could definitely use some improvement.

[hardhead241]

On 7/1/2017 at 4:08 PM, ckp said:

- Lordmonkus items #2 and #3 are HUGE ones for me personally. #3 is probably my NUMBER 1 wish. 

- Lordmonkus item #4

- my biggest wish: i want to drag and drop pc game exe or shortcuts and roms to the platform pane that is displayed and have those imported to that platform with default emulator (for non PC games) and my preset import settings (from Lordmonkus #3) without asking or prompting me with anything. just do it.

- A Bigbox setting (or enhancement to existing lock setting) that doesn't let you get out of the platform and game wheels other than to unlock. so not even be able to change the platform view.

- A Bigbox "light" setting for lower power computers. So, just being able to enable a low power computer settings would automatically set all BB settings best for a lower power computer, but still look good enough to want to use BB. This one isn't big for me right now (might be later), but it seems like a LOT of people would benefit.

- launch game with any chosen emulator on the fly

- in Launchbox, a simple Loading... splash while games unzip

- drag and drop a video or box art file on top of the game icon in LB, even if one already exists and make it the primary. drag and drop a platform video on top of the platform in LB

- Platform level ahk tab

- right click game 'open video folder' option in LB

- not showing repeating names inside the BB game wheel when there is only like one to a few in there 

- Hide/Unhide any platform

- in LB, let the Search filter box work with regular expression type of searches. i often want this word in the name but not that word. so that might be like:  soccer -fifa  (this would include games with soccer in the name but not if fifa is in the name). and be able to use: and, or, etc

 

This! This ability would be great to have for multi controller sets!