10.8-beta-1 Released

[RULLUR]

3 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

10.10-beta-1 is out now with the following:

• New Feature: Background blurring can now be fine tuned to any amount (or easily turned off) under Tools > Options > Visuals > Backgrounds. Background blurring options are also now available for all themes, including the old default theme.

• Improvement: Performance for the new default theme is now on par with the old default theme. We're using a completely new method to blur the backgrounds, since the old method was causing performance degradation.

• Improvement: Box shadows for the new default theme can be disabled under Tools > Options > Visuals > Boxes in order to improve performance on lowend systems

• Improvement: Numbers sections of titles will now be sorted numerically by default, instead of alphabetically. For example, the new logic will sort 1, 2, and 11 as 1, 2, 11 instead of the 1, 11, 2 order that was used previously.

• Fixed: In Big Box, the retro achievements game details web view can now be zoomed in and out with the proper bindings

We've also added the manifest to supposedly support long path names, but we haven't been able to test and confirm that it's working. If anyone can confirm either way on this, please let us know.

I'm so glad you put in a blurring option now @Jason Carr, and I thank you big time for this as well since I hoped it would be this way too. I recently downloaded the Theme you had to kill the blurring, but sounds like I can go back to the Default like I always feel best to do since I feel that is best to help testing, and maybe will cause less hiccups with things too even though other themes seem so cool and tempting to try out later on.

The numerical order thing sounds like such an amazing idea that I didn't even think of, but I know some games need something like that involving games that use roman numerals as well. Like we often see a sequel with "II" instead of "2" but then the third game as "3" instead of "III" like Mortal Kombat and a few others do. Not sure if there is a way to make it where "Mortal Kombat II" can go right before "Mortal Kombat 3" or any other game that does that too, but would be such an awesome fix if somehow it was possible though.

[Vader]

Jason

Is the 10.10 beta live? When I try to download it, it gives me version 10.9

[Lordmonkus]

Are you trying to download through the website ? Betas aren't available through the website, you have to update from within Launchbox itself with the Beta updates check box turned on in the options.

[Vader]

Thanks, I got it now.

[viking]

11 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

10.10-beta-1 is out now with the following:

• New Feature: Background blurring can now be fine tuned to any amount (or easily turned off) under Tools > Options > Visuals > Backgrounds. Background blurring options are also now available for all themes, including the old default theme.

• Improvement: Performance for the new default theme is now on par with the old default theme. We're using a completely new method to blur the backgrounds, since the old method was causing performance degradation.

• Improvement: Box shadows for the new default theme can be disabled under Tools > Options > Visuals > Boxes in order to improve performance on lowend systems

• Improvement: Numbers sections of titles will now be sorted numerically by default, instead of alphabetically. For example, the new logic will sort 1, 2, and 11 as 1, 2, 11 instead of the 1, 11, 2 order that was used previously.

• Fixed: In Big Box, the retro achievements game details web view can now be zoomed in and out with the proper bindings

We've also added the manifest to supposedly support long path names, but we haven't been able to test and confirm that it's working. If anyone can confirm either way on this, please let us know.

Nice @Jason Carr !

Question about blur:
Is it a classic order (<BlurEffect>) or an integration of Fluent design (AcrylicBrush) ?
If it is Fluent, is it BigBox compatible?

The idea would be to add a blur layer on a video or a part of a view, with good performence. ?

[C-Beats]

11 hours ago, RULLUR said:

The numerical order thing sounds like such an amazing idea that I didn't even think of, but I know some games need something like that involving games that use roman numerals as well. Like we often see a sequel with "II" instead of "2" but then the third game as "3" instead of "III" like Mortal Kombat and a few others do. Not sure if there is a way to make it where "Mortal Kombat II" can go right before "Mortal Kombat 3" or any other game that does that too, but would be such an awesome fix if somehow it was possible though.

Currently this method will ONLY look for actual numerals like 1,2,3, etc. It will NOT look at roman numerals and convert them to numerals for sorting purposes. In the example given you would need to alter the title or sort title of MKII to Mortal Kombat 2 for it to order correctly.

[C-Beats]

13 hours ago, TheNewClassics said:

I'm getting an error with pulling up RetroAchievements in BigBox. I'm on the latest beta, at 4K resolution.

I copied the error below:

 

IBrowser instance is null. Browser has likely not finished initializing or is in the process of disposing.

App:     Big Box
Version: 10.10-beta-1
Type:    System.Exception
Site:    Void SetZoomLevel(CefSharp.IBrowser, Double)
Source:  CefSharp

   at CefSharp.WebBrowserExtensions.SetZoomLevel(IBrowser cefBrowser, Double zoomLevel)
   at CefSharp.Wpf.ChromiumWebBrowser.OnZoomLevelChanged(Double oldValue, Double newValue)
   at CefSharp.Wpf.ChromiumWebBrowser.OnZoomLevelChanged(DependencyObject sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs args)
   at System.Windows.DependencyObject.OnPropertyChanged(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.OnPropertyChanged(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.DependencyObject.NotifyPropertyChange(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs args)
   at System.Windows.DependencyObject.UpdateEffectiveValue(EntryIndex entryIndex, DependencyProperty dp, PropertyMetadata metadata, EffectiveValueEntry oldEntry, EffectiveValueEntry& newEntry, Boolean coerceWithDeferredReference, Boolean coerceWithCurrentValue, OperationType operationType)
   at System.Windows.DependencyObject.SetValueCommon(DependencyProperty dp, Object value, PropertyMetadata metadata, Boolean coerceWithDeferredReference, Boolean coerceWithCurrentValue, OperationType operationType, Boolean isInternal)
   at System.Windows.DependencyObject.SetValue(DependencyProperty dp, Object value)
   at (AchievementsPopupViewModel )
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.BigBox.ViewModels.AchievementsPopupViewModel.ZoomOut()
   at (MainViewModel )
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.BigBox.ViewModels.MainViewModel.<ProcessController>b__315_8()
   at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeDelegateCore()
   at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeImpl()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.Wait(TimeSpan timeout)
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.InvokeImpl(DispatcherOperation operation, CancellationToken cancellationToken, TimeSpan timeout)
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.Invoke(Action callback, DispatcherPriority priority, CancellationToken cancellationToken, TimeSpan timeout)
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.Invoke(Action callback, DispatcherPriority priority)
   at (Action , DispatcherPriority )
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Threading.Invoke(Action callback, DispatcherPriority priority)
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Threading.Invoke(DispatcherPriority priority, Action callback)
   at (MainViewModel )
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.BigBox.ViewModels.MainViewModel.ProcessController()
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()

Recent Log:

   8:01:33 PM Music.Resume Start
   8:01:33 PM Music.Pause Start
   8:01:33 PM Music.Resume Start
   8:01:38 PM Music.Initialize Start
   8:01:38 PM Music.Kill Start
   8:01:38 PM Music.Kill Finished
   8:01:38 PM Music.Kill Start
   8:01:38 PM Music.Kill Finished
   8:01:40 PM Music.StopAndResumeBackground Start
   8:01:40 PM Music.Kill Start
   8:01:40 PM Music.Kill Finished
   8:01:41 PM Music.StopAndResumeBackground Start
   8:01:41 PM Music.StopAndResumeBackground Start
   8:01:46 PM Exception

Thanks for this. Will look into it and see what may be causing it.

[C-Beats]

Believe I have found what may be causing the above issue. Should be resolved in the next beta push. Thanks again for the feedback @TheNewClassics

[Jason Carr]

17 hours ago, Retrofrogg said:

Great further improvements. Any plans to allow the box size and spacing settings to be set per platform? The boxes are different shapes for different platforms and this would be real handy!

This is still on the list, but isn't in the immediate plans. We'll get to it eventually though.

 

[Jason Carr]

6 hours ago, viking said:

Nice @Jason Carr !

Question about blur:
Is it a classic order (<BlurEffect>) or an integration of Fluent design (AcrylicBrush) ?
If it is Fluent, is it BigBox compatible?

The idea would be to add a blur layer on a video or a part of a view, with good performence. ?

We were using WPF to do the blur, but it was way too much of a performance killer, no matter what we did. So now we're simply just blurring the background image once manually via a multi-threaded CPU-driven Gaussian blur, saving the image, and then using that image in the XAML. So unfortunately I don't have a solution for videos.

[qzizzleferreal]

On 1/8/2020 at 8:51 AM, qzizzleferreal said:

 

I installed the official release last night and am still experiencing issues with scaling in the achievement profile view in BigBox. I attached a photo of it running on my GPD Win 2. As you can see, the info under recent activity is over-sized compared to the window. Is there something I should fix manually? I don't seem to have these issues with any other function within BigBox. Thanks!

Hi All - Just checking in on this again. Wondering if anyone else is still having issues with scaling when viewing the Achievement Profile in BigBox. Thanks!

[Kondorito]

2 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

We were using WPF to do the blur, but it was way too much of a performance killer, no matter what we did. So now we're simply just blurring the background image once manually via a multi-threaded CPU-driven Gaussian blur, saving the image, and then using that image in the XAML. So unfortunately I don't have a solution for videos.

Are the blurred images disposed after closing each LB session? The "saving the image" part got me preoccupied as my set at its current state does not have any free space to spare

[viking]

18 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

We were using WPF to do the blur, but it was way too much of a performance killer, no matter what we did. So now we're simply just blurring the background image once manually via a multi-threaded CPU-driven Gaussian blur, saving the image, and then using that image in the XAML. So unfortunately I don't have a solution for videos.

Nice trick! ?
I suspected it for the video! Thank you for your answer.

[Jason Carr]

On 1/14/2020 at 11:30 AM, qzizzleferreal said:

Hi All - Just checking in on this again. Wondering if anyone else is still having issues with scaling when viewing the Achievement Profile in BigBox. Thanks!

We are working on this to hopefully get things squared away for 720p.

On 1/14/2020 at 11:48 AM, Kondorito said:

Are the blurred images disposed after closing each LB session? The "saving the image" part got me preoccupied as my set at its current state does not have any free space to spare

They were previously for Big Box, but they are now for LaunchBox as well.

[Jason Carr]

Beta 2 is out now with the following:

• New Feature: The Clean Up Media tool has been overhauled to show the user what files were found to delete and allow you to keep some of the files if desired

• New Feature: LaunchBox will now automatically create multi-disc M3U playlist files for emulators/cores that support it. You can enable this feature under Tools > Manage Emulators in the Associated Platforms tab. Known Retroarch cores that have m3u support are mednafen_saturn_libretro, mednafen_psx_libretro, and flycast_libretro.

• New Feature: The new dynamic box sizing features can now be disabled under Tools > Options > Visuals > Boxes. Extra empty space will be back in the boxes view, but scroll positions are better maintained when editing, deleting, and repopulating boxes.

• Fixed: In some circumstances the boxes were jumping/jittering slightly while scrolling up in the boxes view with dynamic box sizing enabled

Due to the improvements to the new default theme, we're planning on putting out the 10.10 release sooner rather than later (shooting for Monday). Any testing you guys can do on the new Clean Up Media and M3U features would be appreciated. Also, if you can confirm that any additional cores or emulators work properly with the automatic M3U creation, please let us know.

[Jason Carr]

FYI, just found a bug with the dynamically-sized boxes scrolling up fixes, which is causing scrolling up to occasionally get stuck. Working on a fix.

[Kondorito]

Those new features are AWESOME! The clean-up media prompt was one of my requests in the stream we did for the poll, so I am glad to finally see it there! It will make a lot of OCD users like myself to be able to clean duped/unneeded stuff without fearing of deleting wanted art.

Thank you Jason and Christian for your hard work ?

[Charco]

Great new features

[Wally]

Quote

New Feature: LaunchBox will now automatically create multi-disc M3U playlist files for emulators/cores that support it. You can enable this feature under Tools > Manage Emulators in the Associated Platforms tab. Known Retroarch cores that have m3u support are mednafen_saturn_libretro, mednafen_psx_libretro, and flycast_libretro.

Thanx Jason! Can you clarify it a bit more? Does it mean that we can select a 4 disc game and have a selection to create the m3u?

[C-Beats]

@Wally

This feature will automatically create and send to your emulator a M3U file under ALL of the following conditions:

1. The application path launched is associated to an additional application of the game you are playing
2. The additional application associated has a disc number associated to it (found in the "Edit Addtional Application" form found in the "Edit Game" form of LaunchBox)
3. The application path launched is not already a M3U
4. The emulator is marked that is supports M3U

If all the above is TRUE then the M3U is made with the application you selected to launch as first track, followed by all other additional applications under that game that also have a disc number, in disc order (numerical).