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8.3-beta-1 Released


Jason Carr

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I know this has been mentioned several times, but want to bring it up again with the upcoming Launchbox.next replacing Launchbox... the image caching and cache rebuilding is slow and clunky... the user has to scroll through all the games and wait for them to cache instead of the cache automatically rebuilding in the background... it's been discussed and Jason has acknowledged it.  The reason I'm bringing it up again is that new users, etc... that are seeing Launchbox.next as the main element for the first time are probably going to be turned off by this problem, as it is very, visually obvious.  Thanks for considering.

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20 hours ago, Drybonz said:

I know this has been mentioned several times, but want to bring it up again with the upcoming Launchbox.next replacing Launchbox... the image caching and cache rebuilding is slow and clunky... the user has to scroll through all the games and wait for them to cache instead of the cache automatically rebuilding in the background... it's been discussed and Jason has acknowledged it.  The reason I'm bringing it up again is that new users, etc... that are seeing Launchbox.next as the main element for the first time are probably going to be turned off by this problem, as it is very, visually obvious.  Thanks for considering.

I will be looking to possibly improve this at some point, but what you are referring to is WPF's optimization to not use too many hardware resources, and to load and dispose images as needed. This has nothing to do with the cache. .Next uses much less resources and is much quicker to navigate than the previous version, and there are and will be some tradeoffs to that, no matter what we do. I will look to speed all that stuff up, but there may still end up being split-second image pop-in as you scroll.

On 6/6/2018 at 12:24 AM, wallmachine said:

in next the menu toolbar doesn't look like it adjusts properly, blurry.

1920x1080 (scaling 100% recommened)

image.thumb.png.b7ada6c93af01ba369ad0248cf4685b6.png

launchbox

image.png.826348ec9d82793536f234792c40e3b0.png

 

10 hours ago, FistyDollars said:

I'm seeing the same issue.

I'm guessing you guys are interpreting the shadows that are around the text in the upper right as blurry. It's a challenge to make that text visible against any backgrounds, light or dark, hence the shadows. There's not really much of a better solution there.

6 hours ago, faydesmee said:

Image Group does not seem to work for me. It won't change to another image group when I hit it. It's locked. Basically, it stopped working after the last update, I think.

I assume this is in .Next? It's working for the majority of people so it's apparently machine or collection specific. Have you checked your image priority settings?

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Hi folks.
I've just today updated from 8.1 to 8.3 and had a look around LaunchBox Next. This is very impressive and I've really taken to it.
Just two questions. Can I hide the "Platform: platform name" text that shows above the games boxart panels, and can I switch the Developer names in the boxart panels to the Publishers names?

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8 hours ago, faydesmee said:

I use the old Launchbox to change the image group at the moment. It used to work in Next, too. Priority settings are all right. The "tick" next to an image group is locked and it just won't move to another group, so it cannot even load my priority settings.

Trying to figure out what's going on there, but I'm coming up empty. Where are you selecting the image group? In the top right menu or from the hamburger icon? Are the items disabled or are they just not able to be checked? Everything seems to be working on my end and I'm not seeing this reported elsewhere so I'm confused.

2 hours ago, spycat said:

Hi folks.
I've just today updated from 8.1 to 8.3 and had a look around LaunchBox Next. This is very impressive and I've really taken to it.
Just two questions. Can I hide the "Platform: platform name" text that shows above the games boxart panels, and can I switch the Developer names in the boxart panels to the Publishers names?

Unfortunately there's no way to hide the title text at current, though we'll probably provide an option at some point in the future. The publisher names will be displayed instead if you arrange by publishers; however, there's currently no way to set a different default.

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15 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

I will be looking to possibly improve this at some point, but what you are referring to is WPF's optimization to not use too many hardware resources, and to load and dispose images as needed. This has nothing to do with the cache. .Next uses much less resources and is much quicker to navigate than the previous version, and there are and will be some tradeoffs to that, no matter what we do. I will look to speed all that stuff up, but there may still end up being split-second image pop-in as you scroll.

So, the thumbnails are not being rebuilt?  Because as you scroll through your game list, the thumbnails populate very, very slowly... as if they are being repeatedly created as you scroll games onto the screen.  But you are saying this is because the optimization for displaying the images is poor?  Just making sure I understand.  Ultimately, I think for new users, especially, but for all users really, it is the same effect.  The scrolling through game thumbnails is one of the main things you see when you are using LB, so it can lead a person to think that the software is slow, or "unoptimized", even though it's really just a thing with the thumbnails.

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Just to chip in here - I’ve not re-read all of the above - but proper thumbnail presentation in general is a bit of a pet issue of mine! The wonders of smooth and responsive scrolling through thumbnails with no latency.....aaaahhhh!! Really adds a feel of quality of the experience. The Apple Mac is generally good at this. I too would like LB to have a solid cache with no regeneration of thumbnails after they have initially been generated! 

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Hi @Jason Carr,

After following the beta developements for Launchbox.Next (it's my default use case by now) and occasionally installing 8.3 betas, I've just updated to the final 8.3 release. 

To my disappointment I noticed this final 8.3 release of Launchbox.Next has the cpu spiking up to 14% every few seconds ?. This was not happening in the latest beta I had installed (Beta 7).

To verify I have gone back and forth, and beta 7 has almost zero percent cpu usage and certainly no regular occuring "spikes".  If I look in the detailed processes tab then I see about 0% cpu usage for Launchbox beta 7, and with the 8.3 final release it's continually cycling between 0% and 4% (for some reason in the overal cpu graph the spikes are continually between about 2% cpu usage to about 14%, whereas for beta 7 this is constant at about 2% to 3%). For the time being I'm reverting to this latest beta because of this. I'm using it on the GPD Win 1 btw.

Below are some pictures for Beta 7 cpu usage and Launchbox.Next 8.3  final cpu usage, such that you get an idea of the periodicity for the cpu usage spikes.

I hope you can retrace and revert what has introduced the CPU spiking behaviour between Beta 7 and the final release.

8.3_beta7_cpu_usage_crop.png

8.3final_cpu_usage_crop.png

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Per the thumbnails, I will see what I can do to improve it. But it's not a battle that I'm going to win, because on the one hand I will get complaints that the "CPU is spiking every few seconds" if I cache stuff in the background, and on the other hand I'll get complaints that they're not popping in fast enough. There will have to be a tradeoff. In .Next, the tradeoff is leaning more towards less CPU usage currently.

@Rod That CPU must be pretty low-powered for it to spike to 14%. I know what's causing it; it's the controller automation and the controller input processing shell. That's unavoidable unless you want to turn that stuff off.

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2 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

@Rod That CPU must be pretty low-powered for it to spike to 14%.I know what's causing it; it's the controller automation and the controller input processing shell. That's unavoidable unless you want to turn that stuff off.

@Jason Carr I'm using a GPD Win, I think you know it, because it was one of your videos that got me convinced I had to get one myself ? .

The controller automation was already off, but when I turn off the "Enable Gamepad / Joystick Input", the cpu usage spikes are indeed gone (GPD Win is at about 2% overall cpu usage steady, and .Next itself is at about 0% in task manager on the processes tab), so thanks for mentioning that. I'm mostly using LB.Next (not BB) on the Win so I'm OK with turning it off. 

I did notice that in task manager when using the regular Launchbox with "Enable Gamepad / Joystick Input" ON , that cpu usage (on the processes tab) is much lower between 0% and 1% without any spikes, whereas the same setting in .Next shows a cpu usage between 0% and about 5% (with the regular spikes). So there may me something odd going on with "Enable Gamepad / Joystick Input" = ON in .Next still?

In any case thanks for keeping low CPU usage in LB a high priority, while balancing all those priorities. .Next dots all the right i's, and is a sheer pleasure to use (even on a pretty low powered device as the Win ?).

Edited by Rod
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  • 4 weeks later...
On 6/6/2018 at 1:48 PM, Dan said:

With the current beta, I have noticed that the screenshots sometimes do not show in the game details pane, when screenshots are present (and correctly labelled) for that game.

Jason said: I know this was happening with a previous beta, but it should have been fixed, and I've looked at the code and it's the same as regular LaunchBox now. Are you sure you're on beta 16? Also, check your image priority settings for screenshots. :)

Unfortunately this is still happening. For many games, screenshots are present, and they show in the main game browser and also if you edit the game (or press CTRL+I to view images) - but they don't appear in the game details pane!

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43 minutes ago, Dan said:

Jason said: I know this was happening with a previous beta, but it should have been fixed, and I've looked at the code and it's the same as regular LaunchBox now. Are you sure you're on beta 16? Also, check your image priority settings for screenshots. :)

Unfortunately this is still happening. For many games, screenshots are present, and they show in the main game browser and also if you edit the game (or press CTRL+I to view images) - but they don't appear in the game details pane!

Well to go back to what Jason posted there, have you checked your game details settings? There are lots of options to check/uncheck there.

 

Screenshot (182).png

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