8.6-beta-1 Released

[fawkesyeah]

Is there already a feature like this, or should I submit a feature request?

Can each Platform/Category have its own spacing? For computer games, I use wide steam banners, but for console games, I use tall box art. Having uniform spacing causes one or the other to look bad. If they can be separately spaced, that would be fantastic.

[Lordmonkus]

@sergeb Uploaded version 1.0.3 to add List View changes.

@fawkesyeah I had a look for settings to adjust the scrollbar width in Images View but I had no luck though I was able to find it for List View.

[sergeb]

14 hours ago, Lordmonkus said:

@sergeb Uploaded version 1.0.3 to add List View changes.

@fawkesyeah I had a look for settings to adjust the scrollbar width in Images View but I had no luck though I was able to find it for List View.

exactly what I wanted!

thanks very much!

serge

[Jason Carr]

Good to see the new theming engine getting some good use already.

Beta 2 is out now with the following:

- New Feature: A new "Import MAME Arcade Full Set" wizard has been added to LaunchBox (under Tools > Import); this wizard will allow you to import a full set of the latest version of MAME games, and will work with merged, split, or non-merged sets. As a result, MAME imports no longer have to be tied to files.

- New Feature: When importing a full set via the new "Import MAME Arcade Full Set" wizard, clones are optionally imported into additional apps. This allows you to have all clones accessible without cluttering your collection.

- Improvement: The LaunchBox MAME metadata (used to filter and gather metadata for MAME games on import) has been updated to the MAME 0.200 data, and a new backend system has been put in place to easily update the data for new MAME versions in the future. Hooray!

This completes the first part of the MAME overhaul item from the latest poll; the second part will be to implement a proper solution for MAME software sets.

The new MAME importer will work with your existing games, but you'll get the best experience if you remove all of your arcade games and playlists and start over (you can of course keep all your media). It's also recommended that you have the latest version of MAME and the associated full set (0.200).

Let me know how the new MAME Arcade Full Set importer works out for you guys. The data is a million times cleaner than the previous data, so I'm pretty happy with it.

[Jason Carr]

Sigh, I just realized I broke the updater with the last beta. I'll get it fixed, but it means that if you're on beta 1, you'll need to manually update to the next beta. After LaunchBox prompts you to update, it will close, but it won't automatically run the setup at that point. After it closes, you can manually run LaunchBox\Updates\LaunchBox-8.6-beta-2-Setup.exe, which will finish it up for you.

[Jason Carr]

Alright, beta 3 is out now with a fix for the updater. Sorry for the trouble there guys. Unfortunately, the updater will only be fixed for upgrading *beyond* beta 3, because it was the update process that needed fixed. So, this still means that you'll need to manually run LaunchBox\Updates\LaunchBox-8.6-beta-3-Setup.exe after LaunchBox closes out with an update. Then, going forward, it should work as usual.

[JesseBlue]

Awesome! I'm importing a 0.200 split set right now. This might take a while!

[FistyDollars]

So to clarify, the new importer will only work if you have a full romset? If not, can there be an option to only import the roms that are actually present?

[neil9000]

Just now, FistyDollars said:

So to clarify, the new importer will only work if you have a full romset? If not, can there be an option to only import the roms that are actually present?

You can still use the older mame importer for that, and it will use all the new metadata.

[FistyDollars]

1 minute ago, neil9000 said:

You can still use the older mame importer for that, and it will use all the new metadata.

Gotcha, thanks!

[JesseBlue]

That worked quite good! The updated metadata is a blessing!

Is it possible to add another filtering option during the import process? I'd love to use MAME generated list files (see the attached example) to include or exclude games.

 

export.txt

[Jason Carr]

35 minutes ago, JesseBlue said:

That worked quite good! The updated metadata is a blessing!

Is it possible to add another filtering option during the import process? I'd love to use MAME generated list files (see the attached example) to include or exclude games.

 

export.txt

Glad to hear it. I honestly don't think that would be a common request though, so unfortunately I don't think we'll likely be adding that (unless a bunch of users come forward to suggest otherwise).

[Jason Carr]

Beta 4 is out now with a small fix for users getting a "ROM file not found" error on starting up the newly imported MAME games. Thanks to @neil9000 for pointing the issue out.

Also included in this beta is this:

- New Premium Feature: Big Box now has options to allow or disable sleep, reboot, shut down, switch image type, switch view, and switch filter type (view type) while locked

One question we still have with the new MAME full-set importer is whether or not it will work with Retroarch. MAME does not use files when launching games, which is why we had to create a whole separate import process for full sets, because we constantly had issues with missing games and such because there are some games that do not have any associated ROM files. Supposedly, though, from what I'm hearing, Retroarch does use the files, which doesn't quite make sense to me since sometimes the files don't even exist. If you use Retroarch for MAME, and can test, let me know how it goes. I don't use Retroarch for MAME personally, so I'd have to set it up to test.

[kmoney]

@Jason Carr   I just wanted to point out that for RocketLauncher users, you have to check that box in the Rocketlauncher emulator settings "Use file name only without file name or extension path" or you get the "Rom file not found " error as well with beta 4.

[JesseBlue]

Is this a bug?: When selecting "Skip clones entirely", only the parent roms should be imported. But the region setting forces LB to import the clone roms (without the needed parent), if the parent is from another region (eg Puck-Man [Parent] ->  Pac-Man [Clone]).

[Jason Carr]

Beta 5 is out now as well. Sorry for piecemailing all of these betas. I found a couple of beyond stupid bugs that I should've caught before the beta 4 release.

@kmoney Noted about Rocket Launcher.

@JesseBlue That is as intended, as most people want to prioritize their own region, rather than import the true original non-clone. That said, I see how we're missing that functionality to import only the true non-clones, regardless of region. Is there a reason why that's your preference? I just need to figure out if I'm missing something there. My understanding is that the original non-clone ROMs aren't necessarily the best versions of the games to run.

[Suhrvivor]

I only have 720 MAME games (all killer no filler), would I get any benefit by deleting and re adding them?

I've noticed that when you batch update your games' metadata, if a game gets its name changed, Its images don't get the new name, making the game end up without images event though the images are sitting there, but with the old name.

[Retrofrogg]

Great to see the ongoing progress here, thanks so much Jason I will probably download the latest MAME set tonight, remove my current MAME set from LB and then add the new set using the new importer. Do I just "delete" all the MAME games via Launchbox - does it then keep the roms themselves and the associated metadata?

Looking forward to seeing what the community can do in terms of themes for Launchbox Next! I wonder how customisable the interface can be - can we completely rearrange the screen parts, or even remove some, or add others? For example, have a theme that displays front and rear box images at the same time.

Also really looking forward to nested folders and, as a few above have mentioned, the ability to set the image display settings (spacing, etc) per platform! Keep up the great work!

Edited August 24, 2018 by Dan

[Jason Carr]

10 hours ago, Suhrvivor said:

I only have 720 MAME games (all killer no filler), would I get any benefit by deleting and re adding them?

I've noticed that when you batch update your games' metadata, if a game gets its name changed, Its images don't get the new name, making the game end up without images event though the images are sitting there, but with the old name.

The new MAME arcade full-set importer is only for full sets, so no, you would get no benefit if you're not interested in an automatically-filtered full set.

Hmm, the names on the games shouldn't be changing afaik, unless you're overwriting all metadata. Perhaps that's an issue when you overwrite metadata?

6 hours ago, Dan said:

Great to see the ongoing progress here, thanks so much Jason I will probably download the latest MAME set tonight, remove my current MAME set from LB and then add the new set using the new importer. Do I just "delete" all the MAME games via Launchbox - does it then keep the roms themselves and the associated metadata?

Looking forward to seeing what the community can do in terms of themes for Launchbox Next! I wonder how customisable the interface can be - can we completely rearrange the screen parts, or even remove some, or add others? For example, have a theme that displays front and rear box images at the same time.

Also really looking forward to nested folders and, as a few above have mentioned, the ability to set the image display settings (spacing, etc) per platform! Keep up the great work!

If you delete your games, the ROMs and media will remain, but you'll lose the metadata attached to the games (though the same metadata will be picked up on imports so you only have to worry if you've customized the metadata).

The LaunchBox.Next interface should be completely customizable; there are very few limits, and any limitations can be removed with a plugin if necessary. You could create a brand new interface that's near unidentifiable from LaunchBox if you wanted to.

[Charco]

1 minute ago, Jason Carr said:

You could create a brand new interface that's near unidentifiable from LaunchBox if you wanted to.

Finally!!