LaunchBox for Android 0.26 Beta Released

[Jason Carr]

2 minutes ago, Hexxxer said:

Glad to see you have not thrown in the towel on this one.

Yeah, me too. It was close lol.

[PiperCalls]

Hi,

I've updated to 0.28 with STV (2017). All ROMs are on external USB drive (setup as external not adopted/internal). I've imported 10 or so systems now and almost all imported fine and are launching correctly. Colecovision, SNES, Genesis, 32X, etc. I'm using RA with all those and they are working fine. 

I have run into issues on 2 so far...

1. Sega Saturn: Using Yaba Sanshiro (stand alone/free). Imported fine but games will not launch, it just immediately goes back to the LB game selection screen. This might not be a LB thing as Yaba updated to 2.10.2 a few days ago and they might have changed their launch intent parameters (again). I can launch games fine directly in Yaba but not through LB.

2. Sega Dreamcast: Using RA-Flycast. Imported fine but when launching a game RA tries to load the game as a Naomi game instead of a Dreamcast game. The Naomi bios screen comes up and then just errors out. I tried setting system type as Dreamcast (instead of Auto) in RA options and saving an override but it still tries to load up as a Naomi game each time. I can launch Dreamcast games in RA directly with no problem with the Flycast core.

Other than that, it is working very well. Just wanted to give some feedback on the 2 "problem children" so far.

Thanks...Piper

 

 

[Jason Carr]

On 11/16/2019 at 10:33 AM, PiperCalls said:

Hi,

I've updated to 0.28 with STV (2017). All ROMs are on external USB drive (setup as external not adopted/internal). I've imported 10 or so systems now and almost all imported fine and are launching correctly. Colecovision, SNES, Genesis, 32X, etc. I'm using RA with all those and they are working fine. 

I have run into issues on 2 so far...

1. Sega Saturn: Using Yaba Sanshiro (stand alone/free). Imported fine but games will not launch, it just immediately goes back to the LB game selection screen. This might not be a LB thing as Yaba updated to 2.10.2 a few days ago and they might have changed their launch intent parameters (again). I can launch games fine directly in Yaba but not through LB.

2. Sega Dreamcast: Using RA-Flycast. Imported fine but when launching a game RA tries to load the game as a Naomi game instead of a Dreamcast game. The Naomi bios screen comes up and then just errors out. I tried setting system type as Dreamcast (instead of Auto) in RA options and saving an override but it still tries to load up as a Naomi game each time. I can launch Dreamcast games in RA directly with no problem with the Flycast core.

Other than that, it is working very well. Just wanted to give some feedback on the 2 "problem children" so far.

Thanks...Piper

 

 

Good to hear. Per #1, I'm guessing you're probably right. If you have any information on the changed parameters, that would help. Per #2, I don't think we've run into that issue. I'll put that on the list to test.

[PiperCalls]

On 11/18/2019 at 10:33 AM, Jason Carr said:

Good to hear. Per #1, I'm guessing you're probably right. If you have any information on the changed parameters, that would help. Per #2, I don't think we've run into that issue. I'll put that on the list to test.

Ok, I'll reach out to the Yaba dev and see if I can get any info on the parameters for launch intent & send you whatever I get.

For the RA-Flycast thing, I didn't see any way to generate a log but if there is anything I can do to help just let me know.

Thanks...Piper

[Grimoz]

Sorry if this has been answered previously but are there any plans to allow for network storage access, I have all my rom files on my NAS drive which i run on my Shield TV so i would like to keep it that way rather than transferring to an external drive.

[Jason Carr]

3 minutes ago, Grimoz said:

Sorry if this has been answered previously but are there any plans to allow for network storage access, I have all my rom files on my NAS drive which i run on my Shield TV so i would like to keep it that way rather than transferring to an external drive.

The Shield TV has a built-in option to mount network storage as a usable drive. I would recommend trying this, as Android doesn't really have good networking code otherwise.

[Grimoz]

3 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

The Shield TV has a built-in option to mount network storage as a usable drive. I would recommend trying this, as Android doesn't really have good networking code otherwise.

Thanks Jason, I already have my NAS mounted as network storage but when I go import a system it only gives me the option to choose the internal storage. Am I missing something?

Edited November 20, 2019 by Grimoz

[Jason Carr]

2 minutes ago, Grimoz said:

Thanks Jason, I already have my NAS mounted as network storage but when I go import a system it only gives me the option to choose the internal storage. Am I missing something?

To be honest I haven't tried it, though Android should be picking it up for the folder browser. I'll have to take a look at why if it's not.

[Grimoz]

3 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

To be honest I haven't tried it, though Android should be picking it up for the folder browser. I'll have to take a look at why if it's not.

Appreciated mate, love your work

[Grimoz]

On 11/17/2019 at 5:33 AM, PiperCalls said:

Hi,

I've updated to 0.28 with STV (2017). All ROMs are on external USB drive (setup as external not adopted/internal). I've imported 10 or so systems now and almost all imported fine and are launching correctly. Colecovision, SNES, Genesis, 32X, etc. I'm using RA with all those and they are working fine. 

I have run into issues on 2 so far...

1. Sega Saturn: Using Yaba Sanshiro (stand alone/free). Imported fine but games will not launch, it just immediately goes back to the LB game selection screen. This might not be a LB thing as Yaba updated to 2.10.2 a few days ago and they might have changed their launch intent parameters (again). I can launch games fine directly in Yaba but not through LB.

2. Sega Dreamcast: Using RA-Flycast. Imported fine but when launching a game RA tries to load the game as a Naomi game instead of a Dreamcast game. The Naomi bios screen comes up and then just errors out. I tried setting system type as Dreamcast (instead of Auto) in RA options and saving an override but it still tries to load up as a Naomi game each time. I can launch Dreamcast games in RA directly with no problem with the Flycast core.

Other than that, it is working very well. Just wanted to give some feedback on the 2 "problem children" so far.

Thanks...Piper

 

 

I can confirm that i have had the same issue running Sega Saturn (Yaba Sanshiro) inside LB, crashes back to the game selection screen.

[gonzalo_hvega]

Will side loaded versions of YabaSanshiro, EPSXE, or Mupen64Plus work with the launch box app? I’d like to be able to roll back versions if I could...

[cuco]

Hi, im a new launchbox user, im not sure if this is already supported. Can i upload my roms to google drive unlimited (or other cloud services) and launch games from launchbox and launchbox donwload the rom localy (on the phone) with a limited cache. Lets say i want a max cache of 60 gigabytes of roms, so the last 60 gb worth of roms will be "offline" in my phone, but the launchbox interfaz will show all the games from my roms colection on the cloud service.

If this is not already supported, this will be my suggestion. 

I think this should be easy to implement because of rclone. Just use rclone source code and implement it inside launchbox.

 

i mean roms only, i understand that media data should allways be on the phone for performance reasons. but the huge romset will be better on a "streaming" service for a portable platform with limited and pricey space.

sorry for my english

[Hexxxer]

18 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

The Shield TV has a built-in option to mount network storage as a usable drive. I would recommend trying this, as Android doesn't really have good networking code otherwise.

Hey Jason, the network attached storage does not pop up as an option on importing. 

[Niknice]

Just downloaded Launchbox for my Shield. All working well and importing fine. However can I add missing artwork yet on the Android version? It’s found most of my roms artwork but missing the odd few. Is it possible to manually re-scrape? Just using the Shield TV, no PC

[NOVASPRITE]

The new import process works great on my rog phone ii.  Only crashes from yaba Sanshiro Pro launcher and the mgba retroarch core.  Can we add the mgba ap as an emulator choice for the gba system?

Disregard the mgba comment.  Choosing the long pressing and selecting the version of the gba game solved the crashing issue.  Will research what changed with new version of Sanshiro Pro to try to help.  

Edited November 22, 2019 by NOVASPRITE
Update

[Jason Carr]

On 11/20/2019 at 1:59 PM, Grimoz said:

I can confirm that i have had the same issue running Sega Saturn (Yaba Sanshiro) inside LB, crashes back to the game selection screen.

 

20 hours ago, gonzalo_hvega said:

Will side loaded versions of YabaSanshiro, EPSXE, or Mupen64Plus work with the launch box app? I’d like to be able to roll back versions if I could...

You should be able to use sideloaded versions of Yaba Sanshiro, yes. So if you can manage to load up the old version, it should work fine.

I'm not sure what to do about Yaba Sanshiro currently, as I can't find any details online about how to properly launch the new version. If anyone has any details on what changed as far as launching games with the new version, please let me know. Otherwise, I'm unfortunately up a creek without a paddle. Have you guys tried both the free and pro versions?

[Jason Carr]

10 hours ago, cuco said:

Hi, im a new launchbox user, im not sure if this is already supported. Can i upload my roms to google drive unlimited (or other cloud services) and launch games from launchbox and launchbox donwload the rom localy (on the phone) with a limited cache. Lets say i want a max cache of 60 gigabytes of roms, so the last 60 gb worth of roms will be "offline" in my phone, but the launchbox interfaz will show all the games from my roms colection on the cloud service.

If this is not already supported, this will be my suggestion. 

I think this should be easy to implement because of rclone. Just use rclone source code and implement it inside launchbox.

 

i mean roms only, i understand that media data should allways be on the phone for performance reasons. but the huge romset will be better on a "streaming" service for a portable platform with limited and pricey space.

sorry for my english

Thank you cuco; this is not currently supported. I'll note your suggestion though.

7 hours ago, Hexxxer said:

Hey Jason, the network attached storage does not pop up as an option on importing. 

Thanks, currently looking into this.

4 hours ago, Niknice said:

Just downloaded Launchbox for my Shield. All working well and importing fine. However can I add missing artwork yet on the Android version? It’s found most of my roms artwork but missing the odd few. Is it possible to manually re-scrape? Just using the Shield TV, no PC

Currently there's no way to manually do that stuff only on Android, but those features are definitely coming soon.

3 hours ago, NOVASPRITE said:

The new import process works great on my rog phone ii.  Only crashes from yaba Sanshiro Pro launcher and the mgba retroarch core.  Can we add the mgba ap as an emulator choice for the gba system?

What are you referring to by mgba ap?

[Jason Carr]

Alright, per network storage on the nVidia Shield, I don't have good news. I'm not sure if that will actually work to host ROM files. Unfortunately, when nVidia implemented it, they did it in a proprietary manner that does not appear to let applications use it via the proper Android storage APIs.

I haven't found details on how to access it properly in LaunchBox, and I haven't found any emulators that seem to be working to load up ROMs from it either, so I'm guessing if the emulators can't see the network paths, then it won't matter if LaunchBox can import them, because you won't be able to launch them. If anyone has any more details on this from a programming perspective, do let me know. But what I've seen so far suggests that it's not likely possible, sadly.

[Jason Carr]

Just released version 0.29 to the Play Store. Details are here:

 

[PiperCalls]

19 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

 

You should be able to use sideloaded versions of Yaba Sanshiro, yes. So if you can manage to load up the old version, it should work fine.

I'm not sure what to do about Yaba Sanshiro currently, as I can't find any details online about how to properly launch the new version. If anyone has any details on what changed as far as launching games with the new version, please let me know. Otherwise, I'm unfortunately up a creek without a paddle. Have you guys tried both the free and pro versions?

I reached out to the Yaba dev via the email listed on the Play Store page but he/she hasn't responded at all. I know Yaba changes the launch intent parameters periodically so I'm pretty sure this is what's going on. Not sure what to do to get the details at this point. Maybe I'll post on the Play Store page but those questions rarely get answered...