BigBox: Pause key stops invoking the pause screen

[Belmont]

Hello @Jason Carr , @C-Beats

I'm having issues with the pause screen in BigBox.

I have the P key mapped in keyboard bindings to show the pause screen. I also have a controller shortcut (select+down). I can reproduce easily using the default pause screen.

• Launch BigBox
• Select a NES game (retroarch), launch it, wait 10 secs, press P (usually works, pause screen shows up).
• Exit game
• Select another NES game, launch it, wait 10 secs, press P (usually still works, pause screen shows up).
• Exit game
• Select a MAME game, launch it, wait 10 secs, press P... MAME pauses, but no pause screen :(
• Press select+down on my controller... pause screen shows up
• Return to game, press P, still no pause screen
• Return to a NES game, press P -- nothing... select+down on controller... pause screen shows up

It seems to be something related to the binding of the key itself and not related to the actual pause screen since the controller shortcut always works.

Also worth mentioning that it's not directly related to MAME or RetroArch... If I do the dance in reverse (start with MAME), then the pause screen usually shows up at first too.

I tried enabling the debug logs, but it doesn't show anything meaningful (to me anyway). The only thing I got out of this is that pressing P doesn't log a 'Game Pause Called' message unless it worked.

I've been trying to figure this out for a while now, but no dice. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ItchyRobot]

BigBox - I had issues too until I got rid of the two-button combo to bring up my pause screen. Sometimes it worked, randomly, but very inconstant.  Once I set it to be only one button, I have had no more issues. Give it a try. Also try to check following settings...   Tools > manage Emulators > Edit the emulator that is giving you issues > Click on the Pause tab > check to make sure the box "Force pause screen activation and "Enable pause Screen" are checked. This may help.

Edited April 17, 2020 by ItchyRobot

[Belmont]

Nope. Tried removing the 2-buttons controller combo, restarted BigBox, did the dance again and the P key stops bringing up the pause screen after a couple of tries (NES: worked, MAME: worked, back to NES: stopped working).

I really have no idea what makes it "stop working" (I don't think I ever saw it start working again without restarting BigBox).

[ItchyRobot]

31 minutes ago, Belmont said:

did the dance again and the P key stops bringing up the pause screen after a couple of tries (NES: worked, MAME: worked, back to NES: stopped working).

I really have no idea what makes it "stop working" (I don't think I ever saw it start working again without restarting BigBox).

The only thing else I can suggest is to check those settings for all of your emulators. Hopefully Jason can reply, as it does seem to be an ongoing issue with a handful of people on the site.

The dance you described above is the same that I was having. Sometimes it worked fine, then suddenly would stop working reboot to stat working again, then randomly stopping. It was a weird thing that I never could find the cause. I ended up switching to a single button for my BigBox pause screen and that fixed it for me. Sorry to hear it did not work for you too.

[Jason Carr]

Well this is odd. I tried your replication steps and unfortunately I couldn't replicate @Belmont. Does it require a reboot to fix, or does closing and reopening Big Box fix it?

[Belmont]

Just closing and restarting fixes it for a round or 2... It's very erratic, and I'm having a hard time finding a pattern.

Note that the emulator (be it Retroarch or MAME) will pause when hitting 'P' -- it's just the pause screen doesn't always show up (and again, once it stop showing up, so far it needs a restart of BigBox to fix it).

That being said, even once it stops working, the pause screen can be called up using the controller binding.

[twobucks]

I too have also witnessed the pause screen stop working from time to time in my setup using a keybord key. I dont use any controllers and restarting bigbox will fix the problem.

[Belmont]

I'm attaching the relevant data files in case they can help rep roduce the issue...

 

 

Data.zip

Edited April 17, 2020 by Belmont

[JaysArcade]

Similar problems with pause for me as well. I reported it in this thread back in January. Pause works for me 100‰ of the time in LB. Bigbox has issues bringing up Pause after I've used it 7 or 8 times. Restarting Bigbox is the only way to get it working again.

 

[C-Beats]

Been looking into this thread and I'm having problem replicating.

Could I get some more information from you?

Is there certain games/emulators you see this with?
Does it happen more for one game/emulator then others?
Do all of your keyboard automations stop working when the pause stops working?
Have you always had this problem? If not, when did you start seeing it?

Any other information you have you think may be useful I'll gladly take as well.

[Belmont]

I can easily replicate it using just MAME (v217) and RetroArch.

Like mentioned previously, flip flopping between games from the two emulator is usually enough to cause it.

Might be worth mentioning that I'm using the MinimalX theme from eatkinloa (with default startup and pause themes). I didn't test using the default BB theme (which, now that I'm saying it, sounds like something I should have done).

I'm not using the keyboard automation, just regular keyboard binding. I'll have to do more testing.

I didn't use to care about the pause screen, but now that I do, I can say I had the issue for months.

I'm happy to see you working on this. Once I'm off work I'll see if I can identify anything else. Feel free to engage me as much as you want. I really want to see this fixed

[Jason Carr]

52 minutes ago, Belmont said:

I can easily replicate it using just MAME (v217) and RetroArch.

Like mentioned previously, flip flopping between games from the two emulator is usually enough to cause it.

Might be worth mentioning that I'm using the MinimalX theme from eatkinloa (with default startup and pause themes). I didn't test using the default BB theme (which, now that I'm saying it, sounds like something I should have done).

I'm not using the keyboard automation, just regular keyboard binding. I'll have to do more testing.

I didn't use to care about the pause screen, but now that I do, I can say I had the issue for months.

I'm happy to see you working on this. Once I'm off work I'll see if I can identify anything else. Feel free to engage me as much as you want. I really want to see this fixed

The MinimalX theme may be the sole cause of this, yeah. If you can test with the Default theme, it would be much appreciated.

[Belmont]

It seems to be theme-related. I tried the default BB theme and it doesn't have the issue.

Damn. Maybe @eatkinola is doing funky stuff in his framework. I really don't want to have to choose between his theme and the pause screen ?

[Jason Carr]

1 hour ago, Belmont said:

It seems to be theme-related. I tried the default BB theme and it doesn't have the issue.

Damn. Maybe @eatkinola is doing funky stuff in his framework. I really don't want to have to choose between his theme and the pause screen ?

If you can test a couple of other more popular themes from the themes manager, that would be helpful. Would help to narrow it down to that specific theme.

[Belmont]

Tested both CityHunter and CoinUp - both works fine.

I also tested COLORFUL, which is using Ao.Bigbox.Themer (same as MinimalX), and got the same issue.

[Jason Carr]

8 minutes ago, Belmont said:

Tested both CityHunter and CoinUp - both works fine.

I also tested COLORFUL, which is using Ao.Bigbox.Themer (same as MinimalX), and got the same issue.

I see; thanks for doing that testing. Good to know. We'll do some further testing on our end to see if there's anything we can do to fix it. I don't like the fact that it's affecting multiple themes.

[ItchyRobot]

On 4/21/2020 at 7:05 PM, Jason Carr said:

I see; thanks for doing that testing. Good to know. We'll do some further testing on our end to see if there's anything we can do to fix it. I don't like the fact that it's affecting multiple themes.

@Jason Carr

I just had it happen to me again, after a long while of if working fine.

I have attached the Debug report to this post.

 

I was actually testing another bug I sometimes get when in some MAME games, while pausing. Sometimes, especially in Mortal Kombat II, coming out of the BigBox pause screen, I get about a 5 second sound stutter, then it goes back to normal. Almost as if it remebers the last sound it heard as I activated pause, and repeats it for a while once unpaused. I think it is only in the M.Kombat arcade boards in MAME, but I have not tested it enough to know if it is related to other games too.

Debug 2020-04-30 09-57-38 AM.log

Edited April 30, 2020 by ItchyRobot

[DJ Callyman]

I'm having the same issue - but for some reason it is happening on the default theme as well?

[DJ Callyman]

Just tested again - definitely still happening under the default Bigbox theme for me. Can confirm what @Belmont has said - pause screen can still be brought up using controller binds - it is just keyboard (and in my case my keyboard encoder) that stops working.

Debug 2020-05-13 12-59-55 PM.log

[DJ Callyman]

Tested again on Cityhunter 2 and it is happening on that as well.

 

Is it possible that one of the Pause or Startup themes is contributing? Do I need to switch them to default also?