11.0-beta-1 Released

[Jason Carr]

FYI all, the new video capture features have drifted far and away from what we originally envisioned them as. We're now settling on a simple OBS integration feature. We wanted to just make everything work out of the box, and tried several different methods, but it's clear that nothing works as well and provides as many configuration options as OBS. On top of that, OBS works so well these days that we felt like we were reinventing the wheel for no reason. As a result, much of the code has been tossed and we are just creating a simple option to integrate with OBS.

The advantages are many, including the ability to basically customize anything you want with the videos, record only part of the screen, etc., and no one will be shoehorned into using a less-than-ideal screen recording method. The only disadvantage to this is that OBS will need to be manually set up and configured by the user in order for it to be useful. That said, OBS has come a long ways and it's really easy to do these days. Once configured, the end result will be the same: you'll be able to start and stop recordings with a hotkey, and they'll be automatically added to the current game in LaunchBox.

[rockohoward]

Any update on if the installer will allow you to install to the root of a drive? Installing and copying the files is still working but still tedious

[The Papaw]

2 hours ago, Pixel said:

Sorry people, but I think no need to spam the thread for 1+ for you because of my clean media per system idea. When I mentioned it, I had not idea people would start spamming the thread for 1+. Sorry, people. Instead, you should share it on bitbucket or something because I did not have time to do it. A terrible way to gain reputaion, too. Or if it makes too much time for you, you could just like my post instead of spamming it all over the place. That being said. I hope that my post is not rude to anyone. Just what I think.

It's cool, I mentioned this as well. Actually, even in previous releases.

[Jason Carr]

21 hours ago, Wanderer189 said:

LOL, not angry at all. Since this is something to do with beta, should it not be posted here? 

New Feature: The Clean Up Media process has a new option to scan images for rough matches. This new option can make the clean up media process take an extremely long time, but will save you loads of disk space in your collection, especially if you download media both from the LaunchBox Games Database and from EmuMovies. The process identifies duplicate images in your collection even if they are different sizes, faded, etc. The largest duplicate image is kept, and the rest are listed for deletion.

But surely not angry at all, hope it doesn't appear that way. Just reporting.

Screenshots are from 2nd attempt

Thanks for the report @Wanderer189. There are a couple of possibilities here: one is that somehow file system permissions aren't allowing LaunchBox to move the file, or it is somehow in use by another application. I don't think it's possible that LaunchBox could be using all of those files, so it looks like there must be some kind of outside influence. I could be wrong though; has anyone else run into this issue?

[Jason Carr]

19 hours ago, rockohoward said:

Any update on if the installer will allow you to install to the root of a drive? Installing and copying the files is still working but still tedious

My apologies, but I can't prioritize this currently. It's just not at all a common request.

[mcfilmmakers]

On 6/22/2020 at 9:53 AM, C-Beats said:

That context menu has been in since 10,11 beta build. You can't select a group of items from it but you can highlight a group in the grid and then check/uncheck them en masse.

weird! I can't fathom not trying to right click but I stand corrected!

[Jason Carr]

Beta 2 is out now with the following:

• New Feature: OBS Studio integration has been added, which allows you to easily record videos and automatically assign them to your games; take a look under Tools > Options > Integrations > OBS Studio in LaunchBox

• New Feature: Multiple videos can now be associated with your games, and videos can now be categorized under four categories: Video Snap, Theme Video, Trailer, and Recording. These categories can also be prioritized (like images) under Tools > Options > Media > Video Priorities.

• New Feature: New options have been added to all download media and import processes to remove roughly-matched duplicate images, similar to the Clean Up Media addition. This should reduce the need to run the Clean Up Media process, as unnecessary duplicate images will automatically be removed during imports and media downloads.

• Improvement: The game add/edit dialog has been completely overhauled to allow for future flexibility and fixes a number of usability issues with the previous version (such as the multi-select dropdowns)

We plan to add one more feature before the official release: automatic screenshots. They're mostly done already, but need to go through our internal testing process yet.

For OBS Studio integration, we will be putting out a tutorial before the official release, but here's some guidelines:

• You'll need to install the latest version of OBS Studio yourself
• You'll need to go into the OBS settings and add hotkeys for start and stop recording
• You can configure OBS to record whatever you want (screen, aspect ratio, etc.)
• Once OBS is configured, you can go into the LaunchBox options and fill in the fields
• Finally, during a game, you can use the OBS hotkey to start and stop recording
• Upon returning to LaunchBox or Big Box, you'll be prompted to associate any completed video recordings with the game that you just played

[The Papaw]

1 hour ago, Jason Carr said:

Thanks for the report @Wanderer189. There are a couple of possibilities here: one is that somehow file system permissions aren't allowing LaunchBox to move the file, or it is somehow in use by another application. I don't think it's possible that LaunchBox could be using all of those files, so it looks like there must be some kind of outside influence. I could be wrong though; has anyone else run into this issue?

@Jason Carr   Thanks Jason, I think you're probably right, it might be a permissions issue, I definitively need to look into that, again thank you sir.

[Jason Carr]

5 hours ago, Android16 said:

New update created a ghost platform category with nothing attached. But if You have a startup video, it'll play that when clicked on to go to the ghost games view. And customimagetype still doesn't work.

The new update would not create a ghost platform category in any way that I can think of. Unfortunately it sounds like you have something unrelated going on with your collection. Let's discuss your customimagetype issue in the XAML thread you also posted in; I don't think there's any real issue there either, but I'll dive into that over there.

[sundogak]

On Beta 2:  A couple of minor observations on the edit window revamp:

1) noticed in edit window media tab you can no longer drag and drop media into the add media window as in prior versions.  Not sure if that is expected behavior with new interface.  It also doesn't "blow up" the window like prior if click on media images that are larger resolution.

2) in the edit window launch tab where path to rom/file is located, the prior behavior was if you hit "Browse" button for an existing ROM, it started inside the folder where the ROM is located for selection (or used to be if ROM name changed but folder path was the same).  Now it starts in whatever the last path was used immediately prior to hitting browse button (i.e., if edited another game/platform it starts there). 

3) Edit window seems to lag a bit when making apply changes or exiting out of edit window.  Not a huge deal (a couple seconds maybe), just observation versus older window.

Played with the OBS a bit and got it working with test video linking back to game in LB.  Never used OBS prior, so a bit of learning curve for me.

[Jason Carr]

21 minutes ago, Android16 said:

yeah so it created a ghost category with all games counted inside of it. i know what I see. I deleted the ghost category via the files in the data folder. first time it ever happened and i was just letting you know. This wasnt a question, it was a statement.

 

in the data folder, unknown platform.xml was there. so i deleted it and all was fine. But the new update did in fact create that. not me.

Unknown Platform.xml is created if you have games that don't have any platform attached to them. It's more likely that it happened from a data change in your collection than as a result of the new release.

[Jason Carr]

26 minutes ago, sundogak said:

On Beta 2:  A couple of minor observations on the edit window revamp:

1) noticed in edit window media tab you can no longer drag and drop media into the add media window as in prior versions.  Not sure if that is expected behavior with new interface.  It also doesn't "blow up" the window like prior if click on media images that are larger resolution.

2) in the edit window launch tab where path to rom/file is located, the prior behavior was if you hit "Browse" button for an existing ROM, it started inside the folder where the ROM is located for selection (or used to be if ROM name changed but folder path was the same).  Now it starts in whatever the last path was used immediately prior to hitting browse button (i.e., if edited another game/platform it starts there). 

3) Edit window seems to lag a bit when making apply changes or exiting out of edit window.  Not a huge deal (a couple seconds maybe), just observation versus older window.

Played with the OBS a bit and got it working with test video linking back to game in LB.  Never used OBS prior, so a bit of learning curve for me.

Thanks for this; we'll hop on that stuff. It's a big overhaul so let us know if you find any other little things like this; I'd like to get it all addressed before the official.

[alondero]

I've also just had the same issue as you @Wanderer189. Clean Up Media identified about 10000 files it should move, but was only able to move 166 files in total...

I also have my images stored in a custom directory (on a different drive to my LB install)

Edited June 24, 2020 by alondero

[glaymore]

12 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

Improvement: The game add/edit dialog has been completely overhauled to allow for future flexibility and fixes a number of usability issues with the previous version (such as the multi-select dropdowns)

The new edit dialog looks very nice!

But pressing ESC doesn't close it.

Jason, could you please add ESC shortcut for closing this dialog? Thanks in advance!

[The Papaw]

1 hour ago, alondero said:

I've also just had the same issue as you @Wanderer189. Clean Up Media identified about 10000 files it should move, but was only able to move 166 files in total...

I also have my images stored in a custom directory (on a different drive to my LB install)

I am trying to see if I can find the issue, looking into if maybe it is because I am storing the media on a raid drive that is mapped. How about you?

[alondero]

6 minutes ago, Wanderer189 said:

I am trying to see if I can find the issue, looking into if maybe it is because I am storing the media on a raid drive that is mapped. How about you?

Hmm, mine is just a normal 6TB hard drive. Neither my Launchbox nor my 'Media' disk are my system disk either so wouldn't have thought permissions would have been a problem.

[The Papaw]

3 minutes ago, alondero said:

Hmm, mine is just a normal 6TB hard drive. Neither my Launchbox nor my 'Media' disk are my system disk either so wouldn't have thought permissions would have been a problem.

Only other things I can find on my system is I am using a 32gb Optane module for a internal 8TB drive and LB itself is on that drive (not the media). I do have the drive with the media attached to NAS using SMB share so I don't have multiple copies of TB's of data. Anything similar on your end?

[alondero]

Ooh that's a good shout, I do have QSync (a sync tool for my NAS) which runs across the folders... 

Also a few symlinked folders too in a few places...

[neil9000]

2 minutes ago, sonicboom88 said:

I keep getting this blank white screen on startup and when trying to import origin steam uplay epic and gog games :(.

Thats just the welcome screen that shows when the program is updated, its hitting the internet to show some info, so i would suggest its a firewall issue on your end. You can just check the box bottom left of the window and click close, it wont show again until the next update.

[neil9000]

Steam importer is working as expected here also.