11.3-beta-1 Released

[Jason Carr]

7 minutes ago, MazJohn [Mr Arcade] said:

screenshots attached showing garbled text or missing text. occurs as you scroll through menu list. This happens on all 3 themes that I currently use which include unified, Unified Redux, and Unified Refried.  Logs enabled and attached after booting into Big Box for a short time.  Issue has nothing to do with "Launchbox" .... it happens in BigBox only. Game video glitching is hard to screen cap because it keeps resizing in and out very quickly.  I wasnt aware themes had their own plugins such as as stated by @Neil9000 so i guess i will check that next.   Thanks.

Logs.zip 4.3 kB · 1 download

I see, thanks for the details. All three of those themes are known working themes, so don't worry about trying to remove the plugins. Unfortunately it looks to be some kind of weird driver or Windows bug (if I had to guess it's video drivers). It's strange to hear that you don't have issues with 11.2, but you do with the betas; my guess is that means that there are some bugs with .NET Core that don't exist with the older .NET version (which is probably going to cause us some trouble when the official release goes out).

So, as far as solving it, I would manually run Windows Update to make sure you're 100% up to date, and then look for the latest video drivers and install those to see if that helps. You are on Windows 10, correct?

[MazJohn [Mr Arcade]]

1 minute ago, Jason Carr said:

I see, thanks for the details. All three of those themes are known working themes, so don't worry about trying to remove the plugins. Unfortunately it looks to be some kind of weird driver or Windows bug (if I had to guess it's video drivers). It's strange to hear that you don't have issues with 11.2, but you do with the betas; my guess is that means that there are some bugs with .NET Core that don't exist with the older .NET version (which is probably going to cause us some trouble when the official release goes out).

So, as far as solving it, I would manually run Windows Update to make sure you're 100% up to date, and then look for the latest video drivers and install those to see if that helps. You are on Windows 10, correct?

I updated previous post to include the plugins used inside each theme folder....  Windows 10 is up to date- Running latest Win 10 build 2004 which was the update from 1909. I removed the NVIDIA driver using the DDU tool in safe mode to ensure it was completely removed from the system, then re-installed the latest Nvidia driver.  also made No difference.

[Jason Carr]

33 minutes ago, MazJohn [Mr Arcade] said:

I updated previous post to include the plugins used inside each theme folder....  Windows 10 is up to date- Running latest Win 10 build 2004 which was the update from 1909. I removed the NVIDIA driver using the DDU tool in safe mode to ensure it was completely removed from the system, then re-installed the latest Nvidia driver.  also made No difference.

The only other thing I can figure would be a corrupted .NET install, which isn't always as easy to remedy, unfortunately. But that is probably worth a shot. I would uninstall any instances of .NET Core or .NET Framework that you can, and then reinstall them. Is there anything non-standard about your Windows installation?

[Jason Carr]

@MazJohn [Mr Arcade] Come to think of it though, that corruption is different than anything I've ever seen, so I'm wondering if maybe it could be a hardware issue, unfortunately. Perhaps an issue with your video card? Have you overclocked your video card by chance (maybe that could be causing it)?

[MazJohn [Mr Arcade]]

16 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

@MazJohn [Mr Arcade] Come to think of it though, that corruption is different than anything I've ever seen, so I'm wondering if maybe it could be a hardware issue, unfortunately. Perhaps an issue with your video card? Have you overclocked your video card by chance (maybe that could be causing it)?

Nvidia card in use is Latest generation RTX card running at stock speed (no overclock). The PC is a dedicated Emulation build without any special software running on it. Launch-Box has been continuously updated on it over the last 4 years- Since around Launch-box V5 or 6. Windows and Steam games have no issues.

20 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

The only other thing I can figure would be a corrupted .NET install, which isn't always as easy to remedy, unfortunately. But that is probably worth a shot. I would uninstall any instances of .NET Core or .NET Framework that you can, and then reinstall them. Is there anything non-standard about your Windows installation?

The PC has older .net run-times installed dating back to .NET 2008 ... Wondering if i should I delete all previous instances of the .NET runtime? I assumes some older games might need them to run. As for the latest .NET core, I've UN-installed and rebooted, then re-installed a number of times. Guess I can Refresh the Windows install as a worst case scenario and report back if it had something to do with the OS side itself. Thanks anyways for the help.

[Jason Carr]

6 minutes ago, MazJohn [Mr Arcade] said:

Nvidia card in use is Latest generation RTX card running at stock speed (no overclock). The PC is a dedicated Emulation build without any special software running on it. Launch-Box has been continuously updated on it over the last 4 years- Since around Launch-box V5 or 6. Windows and Steam games have no issues.

The PC has older .net run-times installed dating back to .NET 2008 ... Wondering if i should I delete all previous instances of the .NET runtime? I assumes some older games might need them to run. As for the latest .NET core, I've UN-installed and rebooted, then re-installed a number of times. Guess I can Refresh the Windows install as a worst case scenario and report back if it had something to do with the OS side itself. Thanks anyways for the help.

I hate to ask you to do that, but I am curious if that would resolve the issue. My apologies that we don't have a more obvious solution. Let us know if that fixes it.

[Jason Carr]

Beta 16 is out now with the following:

• Matched the GameDetailsView of the LB new Default theme to the Old Default theme to hopefully fix the VLC resizing issue
• Changed Chromium cache folder to fix the Visited Links deletion issue on exit, and stop preventing Big Box from exiting in some cases

[wallmachine]

when i double clicked on a game video snap it opened VLC, first time it just opened VLC and displayed nothing the second time it played the video honestly don't ever remember VLC opening up is this a new thing?

Edited August 20, 2020 by wallmachine

[wallmachine]

6 hours ago, MazJohn [Mr Arcade] said:

This happens on all 3 themes that I currently use which include unified, Unified Redux, and Unified Refried.

For me none of those themes display the systemview and optionsview as it should.

Edit: It randomly started working.

Edited August 20, 2020 by wallmachine

[sundogak]

On 8/19/2020 at 4:01 PM, Jason Carr said:

What were you doing in LaunchBox?

LB Hang - Task Kill:  I had this happen and sounds similar to what @dblalcar experienced. Happened two times during early betas but didn't think much of it at time considering changes to new Core and didn't have logs on at the time. Tonight I had it happen twice where the edit window was open and second when closing the edit window. In both cases, LB hung up with no response (but didn't crash outright).  The Windows busy spinning icon will spin away when this happens. I let the second time spin about 10 minutes before I task killed it. It doesn't actually appear to be doing anything during that time and like noted by dbalcar it isn't taxing resources (CPU, drive all low use).  I have attached both logs where it hung up and had to task kill it (Hang - Task Kill No 1 and 2).

LB Hang - Scroll to "reactivate":  About three other times tonight (beyond above) I had LB hang with the window dimmed as if another window dialog box is open (but not). With this case, the mouse cursor was still active and moving just nothing would "activate" in the LB window.  Clicking in menu gets no response or on any of the areas. However, if move the mouse to the left platform pane and scroll with mouse wheel (our scroll bar) to end of platform listing it will "unlock" and back to normal.  It's like it is waiting for an action or window to close, but there are no windows open. The difference with this issue versus first one is the Windows busy icon is not running and you can actually see the mouse inside the LB window. I am always able to unstick it but forcing a scroll of the platform with mouse wheel or dragging the scroll bar (but no other actions work). This one always happens immediately after closing the edit window, but not consistently. I can go back to same game and do edits and is fine or will work fine for awhile and then pop up again. I attached a log for this one as well but not sure will give much since appears LB just goes back to normal after forcing a window scroll.  Happened on multiple platforms, so don't think a corrupted XML.

Not sure if both issues are related and suspect hard to track down.  It doesn't happen with a pattern other than the edit window tends to be the trigger.  Haven't changed anything Windows wise and Nvidia drivers/mouse drivers all up to date (and same used in prior LB versions). No other main programs were running when happened. Mouse is USB direct connected and not wireless. 

On unrelated note, Norton Antivirus really dislikes (erroneously) the Bigbox.DLL in the ..Launchbox\Core  directory with this round of betas. Never had it whine before on LB.  But it merrily will quarantine that DLL each time a beta comes out due to its mystery "heuristic" checks. Excluding it works fine thereafter (until a new version).  Anyway, just noting since soon to go final and others may run into over zealous Norton zapping the needed DLL.

Hang - Task Kill No 1 - Debug 2020-08-20 12-28-46 PM-Crash at 706pm.log Hang - Task Kill No 2 - Debug 2020-08-20 07-14-01 PM-Crash 832.log Issue No 2 - Hang - Scroll Fixes it- Debug 2020-08-20 08-34-15 PM - pausehang at 843.log

[wallmachine]

@sundogak is your experience similar to the video? I can recreate this every time. Open a new instance of LaunchBox and If the selected Platform isn't in the view of the scroll bar as in the video but the Platform is displaying and you access any dialog such as Options, Edit etc it will freeze until you scroll down the Platform list and reach that selected Platform. 

[deliyuerek85]

15 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

This is weird, because when I look at the changes we made for beta 13, it doesn't make sense that any issues like this would be introduced. Can you test once more to make 100% sure that beta 12 does not have the issue, and beta 13 specifically does?

I have not the exe file for the beta 13 any more. I have deleted it. Where can I download it again?

[neil9000]

1 hour ago, deliyuerek85 said:

I have not the exe file for the beta 13 any more. I have deleted it. Where can I download it again?

You can't if you don't have it anymore as we are now on beta 16.

[MazJohn [Mr Arcade]]

 

17 hours ago, MazJohn [Mr Arcade] said:

Nvidia card in use is Latest generation RTX card running at stock speed (no overclock). The PC is a dedicated Emulation build without any special software running on it. Launch-Box has been continuously updated on it over the last 4 years- Since around Launch-box V5 or 6. Windows and Steam games have no issues.

The PC has older .net run-times installed dating back to .NET 2008 ... Wondering if i should I delete all previous instances of the .NET runtime? I assumes some older games might need them to run. As for the latest .NET core, I've UN-installed and rebooted, then re-installed a number of times. Guess I can Refresh the Windows install as a worst case scenario and report back if it had something to do with the OS side itself. Thanks anyways for the help.

17 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

I hate to ask you to do that, but I am curious if that would resolve the issue. My apologies that we don't have a more obvious solution. Let us know if that fixes it.

@Jason CarrReporting back: My Big-Box Theme and video corruption issue is now resolved . What was required to fix it, was for me to completely Re-install Windows 10. My best assumption to what caused this is that when I had Updated to Core.net it had exposed some sort of driver corruption conflict which was causing Big-Box Theme issues that for me were impossible to resolve. (Issues did not occur in Big-Box 11.2)  So, the fix again was to perform a clean install of Windows 10 and add back all drivers. Since doing so, All of my Big-Box Themes and Menu's are now working as expected in Latest Beta (at time of this writing is 11.3 Beta 16).   <Thanks>

[dbalcar]

I was trying to edit a game to look at its emulator. but all of the options were grayed out and nothing else would work and I could not click off of it

[dbalcar]

I am also noticing that 11.3 beta is sluggish compared to 11.2    when going between platforms and menu items

My system specs

Ryzen 3950

LB running from nvme drive

2080 Super

32gb ram

[dbalcar]

Well in beta 16 I just ran into this where after launching BigBox then closing and then trying to launch LB I get this error.  As you can see in taskmgr both BB and LB are running.  I have let it sit here for 30 min and still there.  I will try and reproduce.

Edited August 21, 2020 by dbalcar
added context

[neil9000]

41 minutes ago, dbalcar said:

I am also noticing that 11.3 beta is sluggish compared to 11.2    when going between platforms and menu items

My system specs

Ryzen 3950

LB running from nvme drive

2080 Super

32gb ram

Well your specs are almost identical to mine, i have the 3700X, RTX 2080 Super, Samsung 970 Pro nVME C: drive which also has Launchbox on it, and 32GB of Corsair 3000mhz ram, so apart from the CPU (which mine is the range down, but still very capable) and probably a different brand SSD (I specifically got the best one on the market at the time) our specs are the same, and i am having zero performance issues with these betas (excluding the first couple that is). So that would lead me to believe that your issues are related to other software on your PC, or Windows itself. Have you tried a fresh install of Launchbox in a different location, does that display the same symptoms? 

[dbalcar]

2 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

Well your specs are almost identical to mine, i have the 3700X, RTX 2080 Super, Samsung 970 Pro nVME ? drive which also has Launchbox on it, and 32GB of Corsair 3000mhz ram, so apart from the CPU (which mine is the range down, but still very capable) and probably a different brand SSD (I specifically got the best one on the market at the time) our specs are the same, and i am having zero performance issues with these betas (excluding the first couple that is). So that would lead me to believe that your issues are related to other software on your PC, or Windows itself. Have you tried a fresh install of Launchbox in a different location, does that display the same symptoms? 

For sure I can do a reinstall.  this is just my test box.  my arcade boex are 3700X,16gb, nvme and rtx 2060's 

thanks  ?

[Jason Carr]

16 hours ago, wallmachine said:

when i double clicked on a game video snap it opened VLC, first time it just opened VLC and displayed nothing the second time it played the video honestly don't ever remember VLC opening up is this a new thing?

That functionality has been around for a while. It should be playing the video full-screen.

16 hours ago, wallmachine said:

For me none of those themes display the systemview and optionsview as it should.

Edit: It randomly started working.

This is what happens when the folder shortcuts (symlinks) don't exist in the Core folder. Let me know if you can reproduce this, or if it happens again.