Jason Carr Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Hey all, the first 10.12 beta is out now with the following: New Feature: A new MAME community high scores system has been built that allows you to share your high scores for MAME arcade games to compete with the community! You can enable uploading your high scores under Tools > Options > Integrations > MAME in LaunchBox; your high scores will then show up in the game details sidebar. Improvement: All third-party folders that used to be in the root of the LaunchBox folder have been moved to a new LaunchBox\ThirdParty folder, just to keep things clean and tidy. These folders will be moved to their new locations on first startup of the new version. Improvement: Custom theme game images will now optionally use the Database ID field when matching up file names (for Big Box theme developers) Here's a visual example of the new MAME community high scores feature in the LaunchBox side bar: Please note that the community leaderboards will show up by default, but high scores will not be submitted until you check the box to upload them from the Options page here: Please be sure to read all the text on this page, as there are some very important notes here to get you set up. Eventually we'll add a troubleshooting forum post and link it from here, but for now of course we can do any troubleshooting here. The process to set up MAME high scores is somewhat involved, but I've done my best to automate it and do everything that's necessary in the background, if you check the Upload box. If you're trying to test and/or submit high scores, please be aware that in order for anything to be submitted, or display in the list, you have to actually succeed in achieving a high score on the game's high scores list. Some games have a high barrier to entry with their default leaderboards, and nothing will show up or be submitted until you beat at least the bottom score. One easy way to troubleshoot is to check to see if there is a .hi file that matches the name of the MAME ROM in the "hi" subfolder of the MAME emulator directory. If nothing is showing up there, then LaunchBox won't have anything to sync, and the issue is likely with MAME. Finally, I've put lots of debugging information in the log files, so if you're having trouble, make sure you enable logging under Tools > Options > Debugging, and then take a look at the logs. Also, be sure to include the log files when reporting issues here. I think this MAME high score stuff will be awesome once we get it going in the community. Looking forward to using it myself. Oh, one more thing, there are lots of other related features coming, such as support for displaying the leaderboards in Big Box. Feel free to make requests, however. 9 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonicFan53 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 (edited) Wait, seriously? NICE! Edit: I love MAME, so high score integration makes LB that much better! Edited March 19, 2020 by SonicFan53 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 17 minutes ago, SonicFan53 said: Wait, seriously? NICE! Edit: I love MAME, so high score integration makes LB that much better! Congrats on Donkey Kong! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonicFan53 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 (edited) (I still have the Mario Bros. record at the time of posting this) (Edit: It's 12,000. That's my record.) Edited March 19, 2020 by SonicFan53 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ed20910 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 High scores, very cool feature, hopefully it doesnt get abused. How will this work with multiple pcs with LB? Also will this pull scores just from the "hi" folder in MAME and only scores updated after the LB update or will it pull previous high scores? I dont think all games save to hi folder but still record hi scores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 14 minutes ago, SonicFan53 said: (I still have the Mario Bros. record at the time of posting this) (Edit: It's 12,000. That's my record.) Thats cool, but this thread is for beta testing, so lets stick to that please and not start spamming it with high scores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 1 minute ago, ed20910 said: High scores, very cool feature, hopefully it doesnt get abused. How will this work with multiple pcs with LB? Also will this pull scores just from the "hi" folder in MAME and only scores updated after the LB update or will it pull previous high scores? I dont think all games save to hi folder but still record hi scores. I actually just realized that you can pull scores from nvram as well. It will pull previous high scores currently, but only if you previously had the hi scores plugin enabled (I think). I'm currently making some tweaks to pull them from nvram as well, which I *think* should actually make it compatible with autosave as well. Testing all that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 Per multiple PCs, it's connected with your LaunchBox Games Database account. Nothing is submitted unless you have an account connected. So no duplicates will be submitted unless you have multiple accounts for some reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headrush69 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Do the nvram or the hi files store whether the cheat plugin is enabled? I've never used cheats but it was enabled and even though I have disabled it in mame.ini, my LB logs say cheat enabled. Wondering if old hi score files will need to be flushed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ed20910 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Just now, Jason Carr said: I actually just realized that you can pull scores from nvram as well. It will pull previous high scores currently, but only if you previously had the hi scores plugin enabled (I think). I'm currently making some tweaks to pull them from nvram as well, which I *think* should actually make it compatible with autosave as well. Testing all that. thanks. yeah, i have had the Hi score plugin enable for a while now. will this still work if we have not updated a theme for it? not even sure if still necessary. On the multiple PC issue, can two pcs connect to the database at the same time? I assume only the highest score would be pulled? i have an arcade cab and a laptop that i do most of my testing on. until today, i dont think i have logged either into the database. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 2 minutes ago, Headrush69 said: Do the nvram or the hi files store whether the cheat plugin is enabled? I've never used cheats but it was enabled and even though I have disabled it in mame.ini, my LB logs say cheat enabled. Wondering if old hi score files will need to be flushed? Cheats need to be disabled in the plugin.ini file. This brings up a good point though...how do we remove old records if someone goes and disables cheats? 3 minutes ago, ed20910 said: thanks. yeah, i have had the Hi score plugin enable for a while now. will this still work if we have not updated a theme for it? not even sure if still necessary. On the multiple PC issue, can two pcs connect to the database at the same time? I assume only the highest score would be pulled? i have an arcade cab and a laptop that i do most of my testing on. until today, i dont think i have logged either into the database. Not sure what you mean by a theme. Yes, two PCs can both connect to the database at the same time. Only the highest score will be listed on leaderboards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ed20910 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 maybe i need to reinstall the plugin or go look at it again. might be a big box thing, but i remember i had to modify the BB theme for hi scores to show in big box, and i though LB themes had to be modified. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 1 minute ago, ed20910 said: maybe i need to reinstall the plugin or go look at it again. might be a big box thing, but i remember i had to modify the BB theme for hi scores to show in big box, and i though LB themes had to be modified. Oic. This stuff is different than the plugin. But yes, LaunchBox themes will need to be modified. I haven't added anything into Big Box yet. That's coming. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonicFan53 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 25 minutes ago, neil9000 said: Thats cool, but this thread is for beta testing, so lets stick to that please and not start spamming it with high scores. ok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ed20910 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 26 minutes ago, Jason Carr said: I actually just realized that you can pull scores from nvram as well. It will pull previous high scores currently, but only if you previously had the hi scores plugin enabled (I think). I'm currently making some tweaks to pull them from nvram as well, which I *think* should actually make it compatible with autosave as well. Testing all that. I dont think i pulls scores prior to ones from today's beta update. quite a few of my games have hi scores. The only one that shows any results are the one i did real quick to test and Mario which SonicFan mentioned he had a high score in.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 10 minutes ago, ed20910 said: I dont think i pulls scores prior to ones from today's beta update. quite a few of my games have hi scores. The only one that shows any results are the one i did real quick to test and Mario which SonicFan mentioned he had a high score in.. I think the nvram change I'm uploading for beta 2 should fix that. I'm not positive though. However, we may add more anti-cheat stuff in the future, which may make it so that only newly achieved records are tracked. If we do that, then old records won't ever go up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headrush69 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Testing some games, and in Burgertime you had the only hiscore so far. My score got added, but it copied your 28,000 score, not the 3500 I had. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 Just now, Headrush69 said: Testing some games, and in Burgertime you had the only hiscore so far. My score got added, but it copied your 28,000 score, not the 3500 I had. That's because 28,000 is the default top high score for BurgerTime. Unfortunately there's no good way to recognize what's a default high score, and what is user-achieved. I realize that's annoying, but once we get some decent traffic it shouldn't matter much, since high scores that are less than the default shouldn't be near the top of the list anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ed20910 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 2 minutes ago, Jason Carr said: I think the nvram change I'm uploading for beta 2 should fix that. I'm not positive though. However, we may add more anti-cheat stuff in the future, which may make it so that only newly achieved records are tracked. If we do that, then old records won't ever go up. Ok, sad that people cheat for hi score and bragging rights, but it will happen. Curious if you will "reset" the LBDB high scores after the betas are up to start fresh with the official version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 Just now, ed20910 said: Ok, sad that people cheat for hi score and bragging rights, but it will happen. Curious if you will "reset" the LBDB high scores after the betas are up to start fresh with the official version? Not positive on that, but yes, that is certainly possible. Just depends on if we see any obvious cheaters in the mean time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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