Big Box continually locking up when scrolling through lists

[Bri Bri]

Ever since I started using LaunchBox / Big Box I've had an issue where Big Box would continually lock up for 1/2 to 2 seconds when scrolling through lists of games, consoles, or anything really. It doesn't matter how long the list is. There being more artwork for items in the list makes the issue worse more than anything. I've been diligently updating (and am now running 8.7) hoping that this issue would get fixed, but so far I've had no luck.

Here are some videos demonstrating the problem:
https://youtu.be/S1n77ssHNF8 (in a long list of NES games)
https://youtu.be/PuwKzR_IRiw (in a short list of consoles)

You can clearly see in both videos how frequently I'm pressing the d-pad on my controller and how Big Box is not responsive. Please note that my controller is definitely working correctly so the issue isn't Big Box not receiving input. This issue still happens if I use a keyboard.

I'm not sure precisely what the issue is, but it looks like it has to do with loading graphics from disk. The issue only ever happens on items that haven't been loaded before. Once everything in a list is loaded then scrolling through it works normally.

Here are the things I've tried to fix this:

• turning off backgrounds
• turning off transitions
• using different skins
• changing the image quality
• updating graphics drivers
• defragging my hard disk
• using different input methods / controllers
• using a lower screen resolution
• quitting all other applications and services other than Big Box

Nothing has made any difference so far!

Is there anything I can do to rectify this? I like LaunchBox / Big Box a lot, but this has been getting to be so irritating that I'm contemplating jumping ship, though I don't know where I would go to. (I've already tried all of the other emulator front ends that have a 10-foot interface)

My specs:
Windows 8.1
Intel Core i5-4690 3.5 GHz
8 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770
2 GB Hard Drive (not SSD)
1080p HDTV connected via HDMI

[Opak]

I'm no expert, but does this happen in other views or only in list view?

I used to have a similar problem, but since i'm using the unified theme it doesn't happen anymore.

[Bri Bri]

46 minutes ago, Opak said:

I'm no expert, but does this happen in other views or only in list view?

I used to have a similar problem, but since i'm using the unified theme it doesn't happen anymore.

This happens in all views.

I can try that theme in a little while but my experience so far has been that changing themes doesn't make any difference. I think (but again wouldn't bet cold hard cash on it) that the problem has to do with art assets being loaded from disk, which will happen in any theme. But any time the UI locks up is when that's happening. Sometimes I can even see the pieces of artwork sequentially pop onto the screen in the order that they're being loaded.

[Retro808]

This has been an issue mentioned previously and Jason has looked into it. There is a thread about it. I believe Jason is still working to try and solve. It is not present for all users, but it is known for some. 

[Bri Bri]

3 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

This has been an issue mentioned previously and Jason has looked into it. There is a thread about it. Jason is working to try and solve. It is not present for all users, but it is known for some. 

I didn't see that thread -- will look through it now and see if there's anything in it that's helpful!

[Retro808]

Take a look. Definitely has the issue you are experiencing. No worries on not seeing it. This forum is pretty relaxed in things like that. A good thread to follow and if you still have issues post there since Jason has responded a good bit in it. 

[Kondorito]

One thing that also help in "generating" this scenario, is that there is no timeout set to load the media from the highlighted games. This means that on every press and wait, BB tries to load all the metadata and media of the game the cursor moved to, so even when the user is actually scrolling, BB is loading all the stuff on each game reached dinamically, and that could lead to small freezes because of queued content. I am pretty sure that if you try and just leave your up or down button pressed (not tapping it), you will see that the list scrolls without hiccups (assumption, havent tested it). I don't know if a feature like configurable deciseconds of the cursor wait time before loading the meta and media could be a nice addition, or it could potentially mess things up.