11.3-beta-1 Released

[sundogak]

2 hours ago, Wanderer189 said:

Just wanted to add something else that is occurring for me, I am editing posters of one of my platforms, one at a time, today it seems the more I edit, the more LB just keeps shutting down on its own, I will click OK, then poof, LB is gone. Have to re-open it and start again, might do 5 games, might do 30 games, then POOF again....hahaha

This is happening to me as well. Additionally, it will also crash in sort an odd way in that the window for LB will still be visible and Windows doesn't indicate LB has stopped working but you cannot click anything (but can move window around like normal), sort of in zombie mode.  If close out via the "X" on LB window it does visually appear to close LB.  But if try to relaunch it will say you have instance running.  You have to go to task manager to force the task closed.  It seems to get more unstable after that to where I had to reboot.

[sundogak]

Maybe this changed somewhere earlier than 11.3 but I noticed when refreshed metadata to pickup the new fields that LB has changed the formatting of images when special characters are used.  So for example a Title like: "You Don't Know Jack: Mock 2" in the DB would formerly name the images like You Don_t Know Jack - Mock 2-01.png  but in 11.3 it will rename it as You Don_t Know Jack_ Mock 2-01.png  The problem is it doesn't pick all the images in the "old" format (dash replaced with underscore for special character), so when refresh is done for metadata (assuming no download of images) you don't pick up the existing image inventory and appears missing even though they were there prior. Since they were properly linked to the LB DB I would assume it would just rename the existing to whatever LB currently wants to see but not the case.  A manual "refresh" also won't pick it up either. You have to either download images again or manually relink the existing images.

Edited July 24, 2020 by sundogak

[The Papaw]

I am not sure but is looking like a good possibility another issue, open LB and using the context menu, click on "edit" any game. Leave that open and navigate to your image olders and select a Clear Logo folder with png files in it.

Then just start clicking on some on some of the png files and open them with Windows Photo, most of the time they open correctly, but sometimes it only opens a black box (Windows Photo), when this happens, if you close the "edit" game dialog in LB, the png appears in the black box (windows Photo).

Can anyone else confirm this?

Edited July 24, 2020 by Wanderer189

[Jason Carr]

Thanks all for the testing and feedback. Beta 2 is out now with the following:

• Fixed all known cases where folders weren't opening and/or games weren't launching
• Fixed column visibility not sticking with the LaunchBox list view
• Hopeful fix for LaunchBox plugin issues (tested with Steam Scraper and YouTube Scraper plugins)
• Fixed EmuMovies credentials being forgotten
• Fixed Epic Games importer not showing any games
• Made the Region and Image Priorities check box lists less confusing to use (selection vs. checking)
• The setup now prompts you to download and install .NET Core 3.1.6 if needed

Hopefully this will address most of the issues. Apparently with .NET Core, you can distribute it so that it does not require the framework to be installed, but it requires separate versions for x64 and x86, and would require an extra 100 megabytes on top for the download, so we've decided to not do that and just prompt users to download and install .NET Core if needed during the setup.

[Retro808]

Context menus, plugins, and Steam and Gog games are back to working. Also so far I have not had any random issues with LB closing on its own. My fames launched by a compiled AHK work as well. So far so good.

[kmoney]

I am not sure if it is a new issue with this beta or not but I notice a blank box under 3D Cart priorities.

 

[Krakerman]

AHK still broken!

Edited July 24, 2020 by Krakerman

[BlueDragon992]

2 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

Thanks all for the testing and feedback. Beta 2 is out now with the following:

• Fixed all known cases where folders weren't opening and/or games weren't launching
• Fixed column visibility not sticking with the LaunchBox list view
• Hopeful fix for LaunchBox plugin issues (tested with Steam Scraper and YouTube Scraper plugins)
• Fixed EmuMovies credentials being forgotten
• Fixed Epic Games importer not showing any games
• Made the Region and Image Priorities check box lists less confusing to use (selection vs. checking)
• The setup now prompts you to download and install .NET Core 3.1.6 if needed

Hopefully this will address most of the issues. Apparently with .NET Core, you can distribute it so that it does not require the framework to be installed, but it requires separate versions for x64 and x86, and would require an extra 100 megabytes on top for the download, so we've decided to not do that and just prompt users to download and install .NET Core if needed during the setup.

I can confirm that Steam shortcuts are working again. Thank you for addressing that.

[Your Friendly A.I Overlord]

I would like to report a bug. After updating none of my emulators would load. Then I noticed that they would load if I disabled startup screens. I saw in the log file that Launchbox looks for the StartupThemes folder in \LaunchBox\Core but it isn't there. After manually copying the StartupThemes folder from \LaunchBox to \LaunchBox\Core everything worked fine again. I don't know if something went wrong on my side during the update, but i want to report it just in case.

[RULLUR]

Haven't tried Beta 2 yet, but after getting through all the NET core stuff it decided to create a 2nd LaunchBox on my Toolbar when I already had one pinned. So I just unpinned the old one

[ZeSystem]

Right-click context menu on games seems to be opening much faster. Was there any effort put specifically for this, or just a nice benefit we got from .NET Core?

[wallmachine]

after updating to 11-3 beta @eatkinola's BigBox plugin Ao.Bigbox Customs broken, updated to beta 2 and pulling system information in OptionsView still doesn't display the information. Haven't had a chance yet to check most features.

Edited July 25, 2020 by wallmachine

[DOS76]

44 minutes ago, RULLUR said:

Haven't tried Beta 2 yet, but after getting through all the NET core stuff it decided to create a 2nd LaunchBox on my Toolbar when I already had one pinned. So I just unpinned the old one

Yeah I saw the same behavior last night didn't think it was worth mentioning but you aren't the only one to see that behavior. Updating to beta 2 it still used my new pinned icon so must have just been a one off from switching to .Net Core

[MazJohn [Mr Arcade]]

5 hours ago, MisterCrowley said:

Maybe I can help with that. I had the same problem.

 

Try installing the x64-Version of .Net Core. This was, what fixed it for me.

Thanks, double checked and did do that. Rebooted then re-installed launchbox update to 11.3 beta 2, and it worked.... However this beta seems to be causing  artifacts and video glitches on all of my themes. Launchbox would also completely lock-up when trying to launch Cemu. For the first time in a long time I had to roll back....went down to 11.2 stable for now. Problems gone after rollback.

Edited July 25, 2020 by MazJohn [Mr Arcade]

[Retro808]

BigBox is having issues showing images from a custom image folder that is not located within a theme's folder. I have some custom marquee view xamls in a few cabinets that use a background image in a custom marquee folder located within the LB Image folder structure. BB will not show the image. I only get a black screen. Revert to 11.2 and it works as it should.

If the folder is in a theme’s folder it works. I keep the images placed in the LB Image folder so all themes can use the marquee image folder and I do not need to replicate images and place them in each theme.  

Original folder image path:

        <TextBlock x:Name="MarqueeStatic"  Visibility="Collapsed">
            <TextBlock.Text>
                <MultiBinding StringFormat="{}pack://siteoforigin:,,,/Images/Marquees/Platforms/{0}.png">
                    <Binding Path="SelectedGame.Platform" />
                </MultiBinding>
            </TextBlock.Text>
        </TextBlock>

If I place the image folder in the theme like this it works:

        <TextBlock x:Name="MarqueeStatic"  Visibility="Collapsed">
            <TextBlock.Text>
                <MultiBinding StringFormat="{}pack://siteoforigin:,,,/Themes/Chrome Metal/Images/Marquees/Platforms/{0}.png">
                    <Binding Path="SelectedGame.Platform" />
                </MultiBinding>
            </TextBlock.Text>
        </TextBlock>

 

 

 

[RULLUR]

Still waiting to get Beta 2 going, but had this happen while trying to get my videos set back to as close to they once were.

UPDATE: The video that was called "Pac-Man - ARCADE.mp4" didn't auto-rename itself to "Pac-Man-01.mp4" and gave that error, but once I went in and manually renamed it to that, it's working fine now. So no longer do videos force a rename once added in? Seems once I kinda thought I had most of the new way of doing videos, I hit another problem that kinda changes things again? I still hope to have it work like it used to before all the capture features where put in place. Those times where you can use a clip more than once from any directory you want from wherever without having to force a rename was the best time ever, and really wish it was all like that again. If only@Jason Carr & @C-Beats could find a way to make it that way again, it would be such a miracle I've long awaited for since that's like number 1 on the list of issues I'm dealing with as of now. Scrolling through BigBox in mostly silence unless it has music added in to a title seems eerie and depressing in some ways until the videos can get fixed back in all hassle-free. 

Edited July 25, 2020 by RULLUR

[kmoney]

My blank box that I reported earlier in 3D image priorities seems to have disappeared so its no longer an issue. Another thing I noticed while playing around in Launchbox is if you right click on games consecutively one right after another after about 15 to 20 games LaunchBox freezes up for a while almost like its catching up in the background and will not let you right click on any more games for a while and the box images disappear as well during that time period. Not sure why anybody would want to do that but just wanted to report it.

[utopicide]

I use RocketLauncher with the Launchbox front-end plugin. After installing this beta, launching any game produces an error like the one below.

Apparently, the Launcher is looking for the platform xml file in a "Core\Data\Platforms" subfolder, rather than the "Data\Platforms" subfolder where it is normally located.

 

[RULLUR]

Beta 2, and tried to run Tapper for the Arcade in which the Startup Screen flickered twice in a way I never seen it do before, and then this error happened:

 

[RULLUR]

So in Beta 2 I tried again with adding videos in Edit, but got the same error as before, and then my Avast did this:

I clicked "Allow App" and then I went to try again in adding videos to game via Edit, and then it worked fine. Very odd antivirus would get crazy about LaunchBox like that though