LaunchBox for Android New Version - Beta Testing

[adam1972]

Launchbox works on the Oculus Quest 2 (retroarch64 sideloaded).. up until it launches... The game starts you can play it blindly (you can hear the sounds and all that).. but the screen never leaves the 3 white dots.  Oh well jejeje

[Eyebrows Cat]

On 1/20/2022 at 12:19 PM, Jason Carr said:

I spoke with Tahlreth, the AetherSX2 developer tonight. I was as careful and polite as I could have possibly been, but unfortunately he has no interest in supporting frontends or allowing frontends to launch games in AetherSX2. He ended the conversation with "I might just make the activities private next update", suggesting that he is going to completely disable any chance of frontends launching games at all.

So unfortunately that is bad news, but it is his choice if he does not want frontends to be able to launch games in AetherSX2. From what I can tell, his reasoning is that he wants users to use his user interface only, and does not want it to be hidden or bypassed by a frontend.

So, for now, we have to give up on supporting AetherSX2.

It's very disappointing, but if that's the author's idea, it should be respected.

[Raiga326]

On 12/20/2021 at 7:13 PM, theekinghumpy said:

Enable developer settings and turn on don't keep activities. It will close your apps on exit but it works

That post might be a month old but I thank you! I did just that it worked, I was looking everywhere for a solution to that problem, I even opened up a thread about it. Thanks!

[Jason Carr]

Hey all, LaunchBox for Android 1.0-beta-5 is out now with the following:

• A new "Wheel with 2-Column Details" games view has been added for foreground videos
• Many video fixes, including fixing video playback while games are running
• Fixed Citra MMJ to work properly launching games with the new Storage Access version

We're getting close to a release, but we do have to add the video support to other views and fix a few remaining issues. These are known issues with beta 5 that need fixed:

• If you go into a platform and out of it too quickly, the video may start playing and not stop after you leave the platform
• You may have to fully close LaunchBox and restart the app after downloading videos or the videos might not play correctly

Thanks all! Let us know how testing goes, and the device that you're using.

[Ally68]

1 hour ago, Jason Carr said:

Hey all, LaunchBox for Android 1.0-beta-5 is out now with the following:

• A new "Wheel with 2-Column Details" games view has been added for foreground videos
• Many video fixes, including fixing video playback while games are running
• Fixed Citra MMJ to work properly launching games with the new Storage Access version

We're getting close to a release, but we do have to add the video support to other views and fix a few remaining issues. These are known issues with beta 5 that need fixed:

• If you go into a platform and out of it too quickly, the video may start playing and not stop after you leave the platform
• You may have to fully close LaunchBox and restart the app after downloading videos or the videos might not play correctly

Thanks all! Let us know how testing goes, and the device that you're using.

No import Dos yet?  Cool I will wait

[thewhite]

Is it normal that i can't change language? When i change it and i want to go back, it crash and it's not saved. If i edit the xml file to set it in french with the code "fr", launchbox is not in french. This is not a big problem for me, but if this not work for others, there is a problem. I have this problem from the first version of launchbox for android.

[Eyebrows Cat]

When I try to install 1.0-beta-5 in an environment where 1.0-beta-4 can be installed, an error occurs and I cannot install it.
Do you have similar reports?

OS: Pixel Experience Plus (based on Android 9)
Error message: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Couldn't find meta-data for provider with authority com.unbrokensoftware.launchbox.provider ...

[mosestyle]

If I already have the video preview in my PC, how can I transfer them to Android without having to use Emumovies (since I don't have an account)?

 

Also what should we name the video folder? "Video" or "Snaps" etc?

 

Edited February 8, 2022 by mosestyle

[thewhite]

mosestyle; The simpler way is to use the export function in launchbox on windows, choose all your games and only manually update video on your android and the xml file of the platform. If you don't use it on windows, you will need a folder Videos in launchbox folder and update the xml for each game with at least this line just at the end of each game "</Game>";
<AndroidVideoPath>Videos/Sega CD/Bug Blasters_ The Exterminators-01.mp4</AndroidVideoPath>

Edited February 11, 2022 by thewhite

[Jason Carr]

17 hours ago, thewhite said:

Is it normal that i can't change language? When i change it and i want to go back, it crash and it's not saved. If i edit the xml file to set it in french with the code "fr", launchbox is not in french. This is not a big problem for me, but if this not work for others, there is a problem. I have this problem from the first version of launchbox for android.

I will review this before the official release.

13 hours ago, Eyebrows Cat said:

When I try to install 1.0-beta-5 in an environment where 1.0-beta-4 can be installed, an error occurs and I cannot install it.
Do you have similar reports?

OS: Pixel Experience Plus (based on Android 9)
Error message: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Couldn't find meta-data for provider with authority com.unbrokensoftware.launchbox.provider ...

That is not an issue that I've ever seen before. I suppose it's possible that it was a corrupted download or something similar. Other than that I really don't know why that would be happening. There should be no difference from beta 4 in that regard. Let me know if you can get it working by just trying again.

11 hours ago, mosestyle said:

If I already have the video preview in my PC, how can I transfer them to Android without having to use Emumovies (since I don't have an account)?

 

Also what should we name the video folder? "Video" or "Snaps" etc?

 

@mosestyle @thewhite You shouldn't have any issues using the exporter in the latest version of LaunchBox for Windows. It should no longer require any XML modifications at all. Those issues were fixed with the latest desktop release. Let me know if you're seeing differently.

[Jason Carr]

LaunchBox for Android 1.0-beta-6 is out now with the following:

• Fix for the selected media not always updating properly after searching

• Fix for videos potentially playing in the background and never stopping if you navigate inside a platform and back out too quickly

• Fix for videos not playing immediately after importing (requiring an app restart)

• Fixes for the issues with Nvidia's broken updates to the Nvidia Shield TV software (still requires Nvidia's latest hotfix, see here: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/shield-tv/9/481434/shield-experience-upgrade-90-hotfix-image/ )

Per the Nvidia Shield TV issues that have been plaguing folks who updated to the latest Nvidia firmware, we've confirmed that the latest hotfix from Nvidia does fix it. So that, combined with the using the latest beta, should fix the issues that people are seeing. Unfortunately, though, getting Nvidia's hotfix is somewhat convoluted. I'll be posting steps to update and fix the issue in a new thread here shortly.

[Jason Carr]

For anyone still struggling with issues on the Nvidia Shield TV, please see here:

This post should help you fix the issues.

[Eyebrows Cat]

8 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

I will review this before the official release.

That is not an issue that I've ever seen before. I suppose it's possible that it was a corrupted download or something similar. Other than that I really don't know why that would be happening. There should be no difference from beta 4 in that regard. Let me know if you can get it working by just trying again.

@mosestyle @thewhite You shouldn't have any issues using the exporter in the latest version of LaunchBox for Windows. It should no longer require any XML modifications at all. Those issues were fixed with the latest desktop release. Let me know if you're seeing differently.

thank you for your reply.
When I tried to install beta5, I restarted my smartphone, but I got an error and could not install it.
beta6 was installed without any problems.

[Jason Carr]

17 minutes ago, Eyebrows Cat said:

thank you for your reply.
When I tried to install beta5, I restarted my smartphone, but I got an error and could not install it.
beta6 was installed without any problems.

Okay, good deal. I'm guessing somehow your download for beta 5 just got corrupted.

[Jason Carr]

Hey all, LaunchBox for Android 1.0-beta-7 is out now with the following:

• New "Text List with Two-Column Details" games view
• Support for both gameplay and game title screenshots have been added; they can be used in both new two-column details games views
• Videos can now optionally be played in the background of the two-column details games views (with screenshots in the second column)
• Added support for 4 new RetroArch cores: a5200_libretro_android.so (Atari 5200), bk_libretro_android.so (Elektronika BK), gearcoleco_libretro_android.so (ColecoVision), and swanstation_libretro_android.so (Sony Playstation)
• The All Games filter has been moved to be last on the main screen only (it's still first on secondary filter screens)
• Fix for a potential crash when changing the selected language in the options
• Fix for not always using the selected language

This beta makes version 1.0 feature-complete, so the only things left before we put out the official release are just testing and bug fixes. Please let us know if you run into any issues with beta 7. We're hoping to put out the 1.0 official release next week.

[thewhite]

I confirm, my language is now fixed. 

[Ally68]

New beta works fine so far

[UnnUndrgrnd4114]

I'm only having a couple issues. Crashing when scrolling through GBA Games and not able to get videos to play in any settings. Otherwise, everything else is great. Have a Galaxy S20+

[Jason Carr]

4 minutes ago, UnnUndrgrnd4114 said:

I'm only having a couple issues. Crashing when scrolling through GBA Games and not able to get videos to play in any settings. Otherwise, everything else is great. Have a Galaxy S20+

What device are you using? Can you send me a crashing log file for review? The logs are located in the Logs subfolder of the LaunchBox folder.

Per the videos, did you download or export any videos?

[UnnUndrgrnd4114]

43 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

What device are you using? Can you send me a crashing log file for review? The logs are located in the Logs subfolder of the LaunchBox folder.

Per the videos, did you download or export any videos?

Galaxy S20+

I'm not seeing a LaunchBox folder other than this com.unbrokensoftware.launchbox folder that's empty

I haven't downloaded any videos; I linked my EmuMovies account. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong on that end though because the credentials say I'm logged in