9.8-beta-1 Released

[Jason Carr]

1 hour ago, FlightRisk said:

Technically, is what happened that you added an Arcade.xml to sit in the "pause themes\default" folder next to the Default.xml? So if it is the Arcade platform you substitute "Box3DOrNormalImagePath" for the default "FrontImagePath" and "ArcadeControlsInformationImagePath" for the "CartFrontImagePath". What is the difference between "FrontImage" and "Box3DOrNormal"? Guess I don't understand what "normal" stands for since that isn't an image type in the images\<platform> folders.

And this is a GREAT solution for now. I can imagine some pretty cool, scrolling menu themes that give you access to all the different media types like seeing the marquee, advertisements, commercials on video, etc.

Yes, I added the Arcade.xml file and also changed the Default.xml file to use different images. Box3DOrNormalImagePath attempts to grab a 3D box, and if not found, grabs a normal box front.

[drphobus]

 

 

This is just an idea 
With both RocketLauncher and Launchbox doing double duty on some features now, would it be a good time to have a global rocket launcher option ( just under or over led blinky phahaps).
ie
active  =   disable conflicting launchbox features
Inactive = default (not using RL)
The reasoning behind this is simply to keep focus on the ever expanding Launchbox features, but still not upsetting any RocketLauncher folks. Yes I know you can disable features individually but probably in time the list will expand. This would also simplify troubleshooting in the future.
 

[Omen]

7 hours ago, drphobus said:

This is just an idea 
With both RocketLauncher and Launchbox doing double duty on some features now, would it be a good time to have a global rocket launcher option ( just under or over led blinky phahaps).
ie
active  =   disable conflicting launchbox features
Inactive = default (not using RL)
The reasoning behind this is simply to keep focus on the ever expanding Launchbox features, but still not upsetting any RocketLauncher folks. Yes I know you can disable features individually but probably in time the list will expand. This would also simplify troubleshooting in the future.
 

I think the problem with that is some people may want to use one or two features from RL and the rest from LB, or vice versa.

Edited May 10, 2019 by Omen

[Jason Carr]

8 hours ago, drphobus said:

This is just an idea 
With both RocketLauncher and Launchbox doing double duty on some features now, would it be a good time to have a global rocket launcher option ( just under or over led blinky phahaps).
ie
active  =   disable conflicting launchbox features
Inactive = default (not using RL)
The reasoning behind this is simply to keep focus on the ever expanding Launchbox features, but still not upsetting any RocketLauncher folks. Yes I know you can disable features individually but probably in time the list will expand. This would also simplify troubleshooting in the future.

The only thing you would need to do to enable or disable features that conflict with Rocket Launcher would be to turn off game startup screens and game pause screens, so it's really only two settings.

1 hour ago, Omen said:

I think the problem with that is some people may want to use one or two features from RL and the rest from LB, or vice versa.

Yes, but just to reiterate one more time, using Rocket Launcher with the pause screens or the startup screens is not recommended at all.

[sundogak]

23 hours ago, ZeSystem said:

Hm, it's only not working on LaunchBox at the moment.

Could you look into this? "-applaunch 44210" is clearly working since Steam is launching the game, so I think "<File>" is maybe giving a wrong parameter?
Is there any way for us to debug what command parameter is actually being sent when we click on the game?

For Beta 14 stills works for me and launches directly into table using below (looks same as your setup).

Pause keycombo still doesn't work for me (but didn't work on prior beta's either). 

Edited May 11, 2019 by sundogak

[TheNewClassics]

Thanks for the continued work on this. This is purely personal taste, but I actually liked it more when the box/arcade controls/cart weren't obstructing the background image on the pause screen; for me I would see it as more beneficial to have an option to cycle through the available media, or an option in the menu for "Controls", etc. The control image is pretty small on the screen, and would be nice to be able to view it fullscreen. I imagine this can also somewhat be done when Pause Screen themes start becoming available. All the same, great work!

 

[Jason Carr]

1 hour ago, sundogak said:

Pause keycombo still doesn't work for me (but didn't work on prior beta's either). 

Keyboard automation is interesting currently because it's available for Big Box, but not LaunchBox, so that may be why. Honestly I just haven't gotten around to adding settings for it to LaunchBox, which is why it currently only works for Big Box. I assume you're testing in LaunchBox?

[Jason Carr]

24 minutes ago, TheNewClassics said:

Thanks for the continued work on this. This is purely personal taste, but I actually liked it more when the box/arcade controls/cart weren't obstructing the background image on the pause screen; for me I would see it as more beneficial to have an option to cycle through the available media, or an option in the menu for "Controls", etc. The control image is pretty small on the screen, and would be nice to be able to view it fullscreen. I imagine this can also somewhat be done when Pause Screen themes start becoming available. All the same, great work!

Yeah, it's certainly easy to remove the images from the theme, and that functionality could be added to a custom theme. Honestly I probably won't be able to add all that in myself before release.

[FlightRisk]

1 hour ago, TheNewClassics said:

Thanks for the continued work on this. This is purely personal taste, but I actually liked it more when the box/arcade controls/cart weren't obstructing the background image on the pause screen; for me I would see it as more beneficial to have an option to cycle through the available media, or an option in the menu for "Controls", etc. The control image is pretty small on the screen, and would be nice to be able to view it fullscreen. I imagine this can also somewhat be done when Pause Screen themes start becoming available. All the same, great work!

 

Just go into your ..\LaunchBox\PauseScreens folder, select the "default" folder. Hit cntrl-c then cntrl-v and rename the copy to your own theme name. Then go into that new folder and open Notepad++ and compare the 2 files. You should be able to see exactly how it works if you don't want to get into visual studio to edit or create your own themes. Maybe  Jason can post the original one here too. You can just tweak the XML and get it to look more like what you want or use different images. I'm looking forward to all the themes that will be coming out for startup and pause screens!

Edited May 10, 2019 by FlightRisk

[FlightRisk]

@Jason Carr Is the API here up to date?

Unbroken LaunchBox/BigBox Plugin API Documentation

Do you have to do the documentation yourself?  I looked for Box3DorNormalImagepath (added Aug 2018) and and ArcadeControlsInformationImagePath and they aren't there.

P.S. If you want help keeping those pages updated, let me know.

 

[Jason Carr]

33 minutes ago, FlightRisk said:

@Jason Carr Is the API here up to date?

Unbroken LaunchBox/BigBox Plugin API Documentation

Do you have to do the documentation yourself?  I looked for Box3DorNormalImagepath (added Aug 2018) and and ArcadeControlsInformationImagePath and they aren't there.

P.S. If you want help keeping those pages updated, let me know.

It's up to date as to what's available for the plugin system. Unfortunately not all properties on the Game object are available in the IGame interface for plugin developers (yet). I have an automated tool that generates that documentation after I make code changes.

[sundogak]

5 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

Keyboard automation is interesting currently because it's available for Big Box, but not LaunchBox, so that may be why. Honestly I just haven't gotten around to adding settings for it to LaunchBox, which is why it currently only works for Big Box. I assume you're testing in LaunchBox?

Sorry, was unclear.  I was just referring to Pinball FX3 pause screens not working, shouldn't have used the keycombo wording.  For testing I do initially in LB but haven't seen much difference (yet) in BB vs LB but I am testing with controller automation only at this point since common to both LB and BB.

However, having the keyboard automation added to LB would be great because with @Omen's AHK script earlier in the thread, could use the Xbox controller Guide button for LB Pause since Guide button is not currently mappable directly from within BB/LB.

[ZeSystem]

7 hours ago, sundogak said:

For Beta 14 stills works for me and launches directly into table using below (looks same as your setup).

Pause keycombo still doesn't work for me (but didn't work on prior beta's either). 

Thanks. For me I had to use %romfile% for it to work. Not sure why.

 

@Jason Carr Is there any way to hide a platform from big box platform list?

I move some garbage bin PC games into a special, custom platform, but I'd like to hide them as it is much more to organize them in a separate platform than to have them hidden.

[Stovies]

Is the option to have pause screen and start-up music choices at some point?  I used to enjoy having arcade ambience playing when a game was paused and a specific tune playing when a game was loading.

[ea4492]

19 minutes ago, Stovies said:

Is the option to have pause screen and start-up music choices at some point?  I used to enjoy having arcade ambience playing when a game was paused and a specific tune playing when a game was loading.

interesting, thats a cool feature, or maybe play a short sound when a game is paused like is most games. Jason would probably have to add in the ability to use more sounds in the sounds folder than is currently aloud in BigBox for this feature and it would probably be called pausecreen and startup for startup screen like start, select, move and back. The ability to use more sounds in bigbox like using multiple sounds when scrolling through the wheel like in hyperspin is something i'm hoping Jason will do at some point.

Edited May 11, 2019 by ea4492

[ALIE]

Pause features work great and they just seem to work out fiddling like with Rocket.  Saving and loading the save Stat will that be upgraded to having the option to make multiple and pick from a list. 1 thing I see missing. 

[Retro808]

38 minutes ago, ALIE said:

Pause features work great and they just seem to work out fiddling like with Rocket.  Saving and loading the save Stat will that be upgraded to having the option to make multiple and pick from a list. 1 thing I see missing. 

If the emulator offers multiple save states you can achieve this by deleting some line in the AHK of the Pause feature in the Edit Emulator screen. Such as in Mame if you delete the lines for Send 1 down and Send 1 Up it will bring up the list of save and load states in Mame for you to choose from. 

[blu3h4ze]

Hello where can i find the beta download link ? Sorry i´m new here 

[neil9000]

1 minute ago, blu3h4ze said:

Hello where can i find the beta download link ? Sorry i´m new here 

There is no link, just open Launchbox and go to Tools/Options/Updates and enable beta updates and disable background download. Close and re-open Launchbox for the update prompt.

[blu3h4ze]

Oh thanks