11.0-beta-1 Released

[Krakerman]

Yes it is slow.

[ZeSystem]

My BigBox won't launch. Not sure when this started happening. When I launch it directly or from LaunchBox, there is no visible windows or loading bars. Task Manager says there's BigBox.exe using about 170MB.

[RULLUR]

8 minutes ago, ZeSystem said:

My BigBox won't launch. Not sure when this started happening. When I launch it directly or from LaunchBox, there is no visible windows or loading bars. Task Manager says there's BigBox.exe using about 170MB.

That has been happening to me for the longest. I have wait about 2-5Mins and hope the loading starts up. Thing is I have like 50,000+ games, and when BigBox starts up I have to wait a while too that even sometimes when I load it up I can only hear the Startup Video, but all I see it a Black Screen. I even had to make the Startup Video about 10Mins long because if it's about how long it takes to be ready or else I just get a Black Screen with nothing, even though it seems sometimes if I adjust the volume or mute the sound it sometimes skips the Startup much quicker. Again I'm not sure if it's due to all the games I have on an i3, or that I Edited some games before I launched BigBox or because I cleaned Cache-BB to conserve hard drive space, but all I know is each takes such a while to get started up

[Mr.Laor]

Takes forever to make any change and go back to LB from the edit screen. At least a minute sometimes. With each release it had gotten slower, but now it's nearly unbearable.

Granted I have 50k games and hundreds of playlists

I have an i5 and 16 g of Ram.

Here is the weird thing. If I use the edit screen to change one genre it takes a long time for LB to regain focus but if I use the genre editor plugin I can change hundreds at one time in less than a couple of seconds.

Any help would be appreciated.

Edited June 29, 2020 by Mr.Laor

[Krakerman]

There is also a longer delay when switching between platform/systems from the launchbox menu as well than before.

[Jason Carr]

Beta 5 is out now with the following:

• Translation updates
• Add/edit window no longer waits to save the entire XML before closing (to match the previous version), which results in much quicker closing
• Add/edit window fields are now focused correctly during validation
• Add/edit additional application page is now updated after editing an additional app
• Add/edit additional application page "Make Default" should now work properly
• Add/edit browse file/folder operations will now open to the correct path if one is set

Thanks all for the reports.

9 hours ago, ZeSystem said:

My BigBox won't launch. Not sure when this started happening. When I launch it directly or from LaunchBox, there is no visible windows or loading bars. Task Manager says there's BigBox.exe using about 170MB.

This isn't likely a beta issue. Can you create a new thread and mention me? We'll need as much info as possible on the issue in order to help.

2 hours ago, Krakerman said:

There is also a longer delay when switching between platform/systems from the launchbox menu as well than before.

This is not likely beta related. I'm not aware of any code that changed that should be affecting that performance.

On 6/27/2020 at 9:10 PM, RULLUR said:

Is there a way to stop having every Video clip I set a directory to a game in Edit from copying itself into the Platform Video folder? I deleted all the copies and did a backup on Data, but seems only games that display video now are the ones that copied themselves to the Platform Video folders which is gonna take up more space than I'd like to since some games I use the same clip more than once. I also am having a hard time getting some games with the same title on a Platform to show different clips on a Regional level too

This was fixed in beta 4.

[C-Beats]

@sundogak

Both of your reported issues should be corrected in this beta push. Thanks for the detailed report!

[RULLUR]

@Jason Carr the duplication issue of having clips making like 70+ of themselves is fixed since Beta 4, but I'm still having trouble getting things to be directed from the video folder I once used for all my clips to be used, even when I browse the directory for it to "Add Video", but all that does is make 1 copy for the LaunchBox/Videos/... folder it belongs to. Once that copy is made, I can't use it on more than one game title unless I rename the encrypted stuff off at the name of the video file's name and leave only the -01 at the end of the game's file name, but then that makes every Region just that clip instead when actually what I want is to have stuff show differently to each Region. I've even tried to just leave the encrypted name be, and tried to use it for more than one title, but all that does is auto-rename it something of different encrypted name to be used for just that one game title I Edited at a time. Some games even have a clip already there because it wasn't an encrypted name. but if I say "Remove Video" when it's not the one I want for that particular version of game, then it actually deletes that clip from the folder it was in to where now the other games that was using it can't anymore. I "Add Video" and see what appears to be it knowing which directory I got it from until I click "Okay" and come back to see the directory changed itself to LaunchBox/Videos/... and made itself a copy into that new directory it made for itself instead of what I set it as originally

I just simply want to be able to use the directory of my choice like I used to and not have to make a copy within the LaunchBox/Videos/... folder each time since that just eats up space if say I have various versions of the same game for Regional differences & etc or use the same clip to more than one Platform for things such as a commercial that is selling the SNES, Genesis, and Game Boy version of it all in one clip as an example. I don't want to have to make that same clip copy over like 3 times to each Platform just for it to play.

I guess the main issue I'm having now is just getting things back to how they used to be when it comes to Video directories

 

UPDATE:

I just tried Beta 5, and even though some games are using my old Video Directory, they still won't play their clip unless it's in LaunchBox/Videos/...

Having faith that soon this will be resolved within the next Beta or so.

Edited June 29, 2020 by RULLUR

[ZeSystem]

I have games with separate app ids on Steam that share the same videos. Ever since the change on videos forced renaming, they can no longer share it. They keep changing to their own names, invalidating the rest.

Is there a fix to this?

With new edit window requiring more clicks to do my daily organization jobs and being slower, I'm starting to really hate this whole change.

[RULLUR]

41 minutes ago, ZeSystem said:

I have games with separate app ids on Steam that share the same videos. Ever since the change on videos forced renaming, they can no longer share it. They keep changing to their own names, invalidating the rest.

Is there a fix to this?

With new edit window requiring more clicks to do my daily organization jobs and being slower, I'm starting to really hate this whole change.

This is exactly the problem I'm having too as stated above

[ZeSystem]

I also realized it disassociated tons of videos that were already associated with the games. I think I know why. Before a game named "Game: The Gaming" would automatically link any videos with "Game The Gaming" by stripping all symbols. This seems to be no longer the case unless I enter the Edit window and press OK on every single game I have with such naming scheme.

The patch note said some multiselection dropdown menu fixed an issue with this new Edit window. As a person that buys and adds about 5 ~ 10 Steam games a week that manually adds covers, personally-edited videos, genres, and images, I have never had an issue with the old Edit window. I don't entirely know why the old menu had to be changed, but if you're going to keep this new WIP Edit window, please take this feedback seriously and stop putting things in all these different tabs and pages.

Sometimes, it's just may be one click too many for it to start becoming inconvenient. Convenience is sometimes what drew people into LaunchBox in the first place.

I know this is beta and building a better foundation for future updates requires an overhaul that may have temporary setbacks. I just hope all these changes and feedback are actually taken care of, for game management in LaunchBox to be as efficient as before.

[rodww]

Minor gripe, but I'm noticing when editing the collection and delete a game in any given platform, the focus of which game is selected is completely reset and I'm sent right back to the first entry in the screen.  This is not a huge issue but when editing a lot of games and trying to remember where I was I have to press the respective key and/or scroll through a bunch to get back to where I was.   Is there any way the focus of selected game becomes the one before/after the deleted game and not the very first one in the entire list?

[Jason Carr]

@RULLUR @ZeSystem We'll look into the video issues. That said, we are nearing the official release, and we have no plans to change up the dialog to remove any extra clicks. I'm 100% positive that we're not going to turn anyone away from LaunchBox with a single extra click in the new add/edit dialog. I'm sorry you're displeased, but I want to make it clear that we have no plans of restructuring the dialog.

[Jason Carr]

3 minutes ago, rodww said:

Minor gripe, but I'm noticing when editing the collection and delete a game in any given platform, the focus of which game is selected is completely reset and I'm sent right back to the first entry in the screen.  This is not a huge issue but when editing a lot of games and trying to remember where I was I have to press the respective key and/or scroll through a bunch to get back to where I was.   Is there any way the focus of selected game becomes the one before/after the deleted game and not the very first one in the entire list?

If I recall correctly, this is just a necessity of the dynamic box sizing feature. If you turn off dynamic box sizing, it should work as you're expecting.

[rodww]

1 minute ago, Jason Carr said:

If I recall correctly, this is just a necessity of the dynamic box sizing feature. If you turn off dynamic box sizing, it should work as you're expecting.

Oh, that's unfortunate.  I like the dynamic resizing I just don't like how it resets the position....  oh well.    And yes, I just tested that and it worked.  Thanks.

[ZeSystem]

28 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

@RULLUR @ZeSystem We'll look into the video issues. That said, we are nearing the official release, and we have no plans to change up the dialog to remove any extra clicks. I'm 100% positive that we're not going to turn anyone away from LaunchBox with a single extra click in the new add/edit dialog. I'm sorry you're displeased, but I want to make it clear that we have no plans of restructuring the dialog.

I figured you would say that. I still voiced my opinion since I do manage games all the time. Hopefully, you'll consider making UI efficient next time if you plan on overhauling or making a new dialog.

Thanks for looking into video issues.

[ZeSystem]

3 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

This isn't likely a beta issue. Can you create a new thread and mention me? We'll need as much info as possible on the issue in order to help.

You were right. This started happening after the Windows 10 2004 update and I managed to track down the cause. It seems the update enabled a few manually-disabled HID drivers. I no longer have this problem after disabling these drivers again, but if you wish to know what was causing it here it is.

The controllers work perfectly fine in nearly all games, but these drivers by simply being enabled can cause issues like this. It makes the Windows game controller dialog periodically freeze as well, just as LaunchBox's Option dialog did (when it's opened or closed). BigBox seems to also have an issue with a different symptom: it just never launched while running in the background. AVGN Adventure 1 (Steam) game has this issue as well with respawns freezing the game for a few good seconds with troublesome drivers. I heard Corsair keyboard RGB program can trigger this, though I can't confirm it.

I don't know how the rest of C# apps and games do it, but they don't have this issue in anywhere in their program. Maybe it just depends how the controller is pooled through their own implementation. I don't think it's something you should worry about, but if you ever get a report like this, you could direct them to find and disable the troublesome driver (often unsafe) or find an alternative to fixing that driver somehow.

EDIT: I meant a few HID drivers I no longer use. All of the drivers I had to disable were ones I no longer use such as an USB DAC (obviously not a game controller).

Edited June 29, 2020 by ZeSystem

[Krakerman]

Yeah could been a one off thing who knows ... computers ?

[ItchyRobot]

I am, seeing different gameplay videos now. How do I prioritize full screen gameplay videos instead of the themed looking ones with animations floating around the gameplay video?

[neil9000]

6 minutes ago, ItchyRobot said:

I am, seeing different gameplay videos now. How do I prioritize full screen gameplay videos instead of the themed looking ones with animations floating around the gameplay video?