8.6-beta-1 Released

[Omen]

13 minutes ago, flores9 said:

Yes, that file. Edit with notepad++ with LB closed.

Yup this worked, thanks! I was dumb and had LB opened the first time I edited it.

[Omen]

4 minutes ago, TheNewClassics said:

Sounds good, thanks Jason. If it's helpful at all I'm using stand-alone MAME as my emulator, and still getting the "Rom does not exist" error.

I think "Use file name only without file extension or folder path" has to be enabled in your LB emulator settings under Tools/manage emulators.

[JesseBlue]

8 minutes ago, TheNewClassics said:

If it's helpful at all I'm using stand-alone MAME as my emulator, and still getting the "Rom does not exist" error.

With every single mame game or just a few?

[TheNewClassics]

Well my LB updated to beta 5 and now it's working. No idea what changed. I'm not getting the error anymore.

[Jason Carr]

Alright, beta 6 is out with the following:

- Changed the new MAME arcade full-set importer to ask for the folder path of the ROMs, and then use the full path for the application path instead of just the MAME game identifier. This should hopefully solve issues launching MAME games in Retroarch or other emulators that don't work as MAME was designed.

- Fixed the issue launching additional apps when the file does not exist, and made the removal of that error message more robust by checking if the platform is Arcade or MAME. If the platform is Arcade or MAME, or if the emulator name contains the word MAME, or if the "use file name only without file extension or folder path" option is checked on the emulator, then LaunchBox will not check to make sure that the ROM file exists before launching the game. This is still needed, because even with full ROM paths in the application path field, some of the ROM files may not actually exist for MAME if the user has a merged set (or is launching a ROMless or CHD-only MAME game). Whew.

- The image cache folders have been cleaned up proper. Upon starting up LaunchBox or Big Box, LaunchBox will check for the old image cache folders, delete any unused files that are relics from the old LaunchBox interface, and rename the folders to LaunchBox\Images\Cache-LB and LaunchBox\Images\Cache-BB. This should remove any confusion about what goes where, and get rid of any unnecessary wasted space.

- The main menu and the right-click menu in LaunchBox are now being cached on startup, because I've noticed that sometimes the menus take way too long to load the first time you click on them. Caching them on startup seems to have done the trick, and it shouldn't affect startup time since I'm doing it in a separate thread.

- Made some minor controller performance improvements. In the Big Box controller lag thread we've confirmed that the previous changes I had made fixed the controller lag issues, but only when Use All Controllers is unchecked. I'm not certain if the additional changes I just made will improve things for when Use All Controllers is checked or not; we'll see how that goes. Beyond what I've done though, I don't think there's anything else I can do, since there's no getting around the additional control parsing that happens every 5 seconds if you want LaunchBox to automatically pick up any controller that it finds. It's worth noting though that if you're experiencing controller lag of any kind, it's recommended to disable Use All Controllers in Big Box.

[ZeSystem]

3 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

- The main menu and the right-click menu in LaunchBox are now being cached on startup, because I've noticed that sometimes the menus take way too long to load the first time you click on them. Caching them on startup seems to have done the trick, and it shouldn't affect startup time since I'm doing it in a separate thread.

Thank you!!! These are things that I think that it wouldn't get improved and viola, it's there in LaunchBox out of nowhere!

Since the new overhaul is done, I'm more exciting to see what improvements are coming (outside of the poll) to the BigBox!

[Chris Kant]

9 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

 

- Made some minor controller performance improvements. In the Big Box controller lag thread we've confirmed that the previous changes I had made fixed the controller lag issues, but only when Use All Controllers is unchecked. I'm not certain if the additional changes I just made will improve things for when Use All Controllers is checked or not; we'll see how that goes. Beyond what I've done though, I don't think there's anything else I can do, since there's no getting around the additional control parsing that happens every 5 seconds if you want LaunchBox to automatically pick up any controller that it finds. It's worth noting though that if you're experiencing controller lag of any kind, it's recommended to disable Use All Controllers in Big Box.

Sounds great. would it be possible to put the controller check into another thread so it would not impact anymore current used controller? (just thinking out loud)

[Retrofrogg]

Regarding the "bug" I had identified in the previous release - regarding the double click on single clicking problem - I feel like a bit of an idiot as I've now noticed it in other apps too. Both in Windows and OSX. So I'm wondering if it's something to do with my mouse or KVM switch. Will experiment further. At least others also reported this bug so it wasn't just me  

[Mr. RetroLust]

4 hours ago, Dan said:

Regarding the "bug" I had identified in the previous release - regarding the double click on single clicking problem - I feel like a bit of an idiot as I've now noticed it in other apps too. Both in Windows and OSX. So I'm wondering if it's something to do with my mouse or KVM switch. Will experiment further. At least others also reported this bug so it wasn't just me  

Yep seems like the mouse is slowly developing the wearing out issue I mentioned before if it's behaving like that cross-OS. If you have another less used mouse try it out, that way you can rule out if it's hardware related. Almost all mice develop this after heavy use, funny enough it happened to me far sooner multiple times with expensive Logitech, Roccat and Microsoft mice, while this cheap mouse is outlasting it already, it's a 15 euro Corsair (edit: It starts with a C lol, it's a Coolermaster actually) compared to 40 to 60 euro mice I used before. I use side buttons a lot for quick copy and paste functions, the funny thing is you can program these buttons with freeware drivers so you dont have to buy expensive mice for this task alone (which is why I did before).

Edited August 25, 2018 by Mr. RetroLust

[Jason Carr]

5 hours ago, Chris Kant said:

Sounds great. would it be possible to put the controller check into another thread so it would not impact anymore current used controller? (just thinking out loud)

It already is in a separate thread, but something in the detection algorithms apparently still manages to hitch things up (makes sense that the controller specifically would be lagged). However, I seemed to have fixed the issue with the latest beta on my GPD Win 2, so it might be fixed for good.

[Omen]

@Jason Carr I recently deleted my platform banners and encountered a bug in BigBox. For some reason if there isn't a banner for Arcade/Mame platform, BB automatically adds the default image. Even if I delete the image, as soon as I go back to the Mame platform BigBox pauses for a second and then the image reappears. The only way to stop it from adding the default banner is by adding another image to the folder. This doesn't happen in LB.Next, only if I go to the platform in BB.

This is the image it keeps adding:

Edited August 25, 2018 by Omen

[gustarrini]

On 8/20/2018 at 3:15 PM, Jason Carr said:

- LaunchBox now supports custom themes just like Big Box. Check out the new LaunchBox\LBThemes folder, and change the theme under Tools > Options > Visuals. 

Yep, my license purchase was definetly worth it.

Great beta, as always!

[Jason Carr]

1 hour ago, Omen said:

@Jason Carr I recently deleted my platform banners and encountered a bug in BigBox. For some reason if there isn't a banner for Arcade/Mame platform, BB automatically adds the default image. Even if I delete the image, as soon as I go back to the Mame platform BigBox pauses for a second and then the image reappears. The only way to stop it from adding the default banner is by adding another image to the folder. This doesn't happen in LB.Next, only if I go to the platform in BB.

This is the image it keeps adding:

It's been that way since the beginning, and it's by design. If you just want to get rid of it, you can turn off banner images.

[Chris Kant]

I am unsure how I would like the new MAME importer, because I don't want to test it with my 0.194 set. btw: is it possible to add and update the MAME Arcade System Playlist like cps1, model 1 and so on? there are a lot of not really implemented systems like Namco 21, Namco 12 etc etc AND systems Like CPS1 and 2 are not completed - I had to manually add games to these systems too. 

[ALIE]

On 8/23/2018 at 6:37 PM, Jason Carr said:

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.

sorry for a dumb question ? but I've been reading this a million times but my brain isnt getting it.

i just jumped from beta 1 to 6 does this effect me. i think not but just wanna be sure.

[neil9000]

1 minute ago, ALIE said:

sorry for a dumb question ? but I've been reading this a million times but my brain isnt getting it.

i just jumped from beta 1 to 6 does this effect me. i think not but just wanna be sure.

No, only if you actually downloaded and installed beta 2.

[Phox]

When I add or import roms into Launchbox.next, it keeps creating folders inside my emulator folders for some reason. As you can see by the attached screenshot, the "Manuals" and "Music" folders were created in my RetroArch directory. And inside those folders are platform folders. I'm not sure what could be causing this issue.

Edited August 26, 2018 by Mah0uPh0x

[RULLUR]

The problem I'm having when it comes to MAME is trying to get everything to run correctly in which was to maybe Download every version of MAME from v1-200+. I don't have things as a set really. I just get a few ROMs here and there in which I don't quite know which is compatible with what. All I know now is that my oldest MAME is v155 and seems to do best with most of my games, but now it seems to have framerate issues in which the sound is stuttered up and once I exit a game I see a command prompt window appear for like a split-second and then close. When I run others that don't do v155 at most I'll get a command prompt window popping up scrolling a list of errors I can't read quick enough with at times I can see it say something of a "fatal error". I even have ran some from a version between 155-199 that open a prompt with a blinking cursor and then kinda close, or I get a game to load at a percentage that seems finished and then it crashes.

I'm not exactly clear on the new MAME Import feature, and seems now having all versions of MAME adjusted manually to whichever ROM is now crashing too at most since I Bulk Edited to v200 and this new feature is kinda unclear to me since I don't have my ROMs in sets

[neil9000]

2 minutes ago, RULLUR said:

I Bulk Edited to v200 and this new feature is kinda unclear to me since I don't have my ROMs in sets

Then this importer is not for you, it is for complete mame romsets of the same version. The way you have your roms is actually the worst way you can do it with roms from all different versions, this is why the mame emulator and the mame roms are numbered in sets so that you can easily use the correct roms with the correct version of the emulator.

4 minutes ago, RULLUR said:

The problem I'm having when it comes to MAME is trying to get everything to run correctly in which was to maybe Download every version of MAME from v1-200+.

No, the 0.200 of the mame romset has everything you need, you dont need every numbered set just the newest one.

[RULLUR]

I've always found at times when I update MAME in the times before I even had LaunchBox I would dump all my ROMs into the newest version and get rid of the the older MAME, but then some games would no longer work in the latest MAME after. So because this happens, I decided to kinda play it safe with keeping them around and using LaunchBox to run the ones that work with whatever version certain ones work best with.

So what would be best in making things run much cleaner?