12.7 Beta Testing

[faeran]

For Users on LaunchBox 11.7 Beta 1 or Beta 2:
There's the potential that your update will not initialize after it downloads. If this happens to you, there are 3 workarounds to get you up and running.

1. Preferred option: Go into Options > General > Updates and turn on the option Automatically Download Updates in the Background, and press Okay. Once LaunchBox has downloaded in the background, it will prompt you to install it.
2. Premium option: Run Big Box. It will notify you that there is an update and run you through the update process.
3. Manual option: Check your Updates folder for the following file and run it: LaunchBox-12.7-beta-3-Setup.exe. During installation, double check your install path is correct (It is common to mistakenly install a second version of LaunchBox inside of your LaunchBox folder, creating a LaunchBox\LaunchBox folder scenario).

 

 

Happy New Year everyone. LaunchBox 12.7 Beta 1 is now out with the following changes:

• Improvement: Updated several forms to utilize the new dialog theming colors
• Improvement: LaunchBox and Big Box startup process has been overhauled, should result in faster start-up times
• Improvement: LaunchBox context menus should now open more quickly
• Fixed: Amazon Games importer was not detecting all games in a user's library
• Fixed: Error when selecting a controller in Big Box while no controllers were connected
• Fixed: Various issues when using FlowVideo outside of a FlowContext (for theme developers)

 

Beta 3:

• New Premium Feature: Compatibility options have been added in Big Box for various types of wonky marquee screens that cut off or stretch the image (see the new Marquee Screen section in the Big Box options)
• New Premium Feature: Big Box users now have the option to stretch marquee images to fill the screen or keep their image aspect ratios (also in the new Marquee Screen section of the Big Box options)
• Improvement: Big Box will now use platform clear logos with fanart backgrounds on marquee screens if no marquee image exists (just like the games views previously already did)
• Improvement: Big Box marquees are much lighter to run and should have less performance bottlenecks on lower-end hardware
• Improvement: Clear logos and fanart backgrounds will no longer occasionally flicker behind marquee screen images during transitions
• Fixed - Restored ability to delete rows from the Drag and Drop ROM import wizard
• Fixed - Corrected some Tools menu items from always being disabled

 

Beta 4:

• New Premium Feature: Added a Documents badge for games with manuals and other documents
• New Feature: MAME can now be automatically downloaded (or updated) and installed via the MAME Full Set Importer. This makes it super easy to get up and playing just by running the MAME Arcade Full Set Wizard and nothing else.
• New Feature: Game Details in LaunchBox has been overhauled with a new, modern look
• New Feature: Added new controls and bindings for use inside of LaunchBox Game Details (for theme devs)

 

Beta 5:

• Fixed: Game Details background no longer stops you from deleting the file being shown
• Fixed: Videos now only take the space required to play them (Which caused the black box on either side even when PreviewBackground was Transparent) - For Theme Devs
• Fixed: Items were showing twice in the carousel previews if the item was used both in Background and Screenshot Image Priorities
• Fixed: Wikipedia and YouTube link mouse-over wasn't working on the transparent sections of the icons
• Fixed: Some menu items weren't updating their strings correctly
• Fixed: Document badge wasn't showing up correctly for all items with a manual
• Fixed: Completed check box was missing it's tooltip
• Fixed: Carousel play button flickering when GameDetails is first opening up
• Fixed: Carousel video now responds to volume change correctly
• Fixed: Carousel video can now be double clicked to open a full screen player like you used to be able to in previous versions

 

Beta 6:

• Fixed: Videos in the LaunchBox carousel with embedded thumbnails of different aspect ratio from its source (like some EmuMovies videos) will now play correctly in the default theme
• Fixed: Videos in the LaunchBox carousel now have the right-click context menu to Fullscreen and Delete
• Fixed: Viewing a video fullscreen in the LaunchBox carousel now opens a window inside of LaunchBox instead of a VLC instance

 

Beta 7:

• Fixed: Restored ability to use platform specific game marquee views
• Fixed: Helped correct some of the issue regarding LaunchBox Game Detail's audio playing after the video closes
• Fixed: Added more logic to avoid Uri errors while attempting to load a Game Details video
• Fixed: Carousel preview items can now be navigated correctly using a keyboard

[kmoney]

Definitely notice the faster startup times.☺️ 

[Drybonz]

I had reported issues with slow context menu and highlighting in the previous beta thread.  I can confirm that with this beta this appears to be fixed for me.  Thanks.

[SqHd]

Happy New Year! And thanks for the new beta. It definitely seems faster. One thing I noticed is there are 2 disabled options under "Tools" -> "File Management". 

1) Change ROMs Folder Path for Selected Games...

2) Export/Copy ROM Files from Selected Games to New Folder...

When I select a bunch of games to change their folder path, those options remain greyed out and unclickable. I may be doing something wrong, but I don't remember this behavior from previous versions.

[Chris Kant]

I am not sure if this is an issue with the newest beta but lets see:

when I want to import a new system with a folder with roms in it (example Atari 7800)

I am going through the wizard and receive a list of files Launchbox wants to import. I usually have to opportunity to delete files manually in this overview but it is no longer possible in this screen.

[C-Beats]

3 hours ago, Chris Kant said:

I am not sure if this is an issue with the newest beta but lets see:

when I want to import a new system with a folder with roms in it (example Atari 7800)

I am going through the wizard and receive a list of files Launchbox wants to import. I usually have to opportunity to delete files manually in this overview but it is no longer possible in this screen.

This window wasn't changed in this beta release, but deleting in this window SHOULD work. I'll take a look and see if I can replicate, if so I'll see about getting it fixed before next beta release.

[C-Beats]

6 hours ago, SqHd said:

Happy New Year! And thanks for the new beta. It definitely seems faster. One thing I noticed is there are 2 disabled options under "Tools" -> "File Management". 

1) Change ROMs Folder Path for Selected Games...

2) Export/Copy ROM Files from Selected Games to New Folder...

When I select a bunch of games to change their folder path, those options remain greyed out and unclickable. I may be doing something wrong, but I don't remember this behavior from previous versions.

Can confirm the bug, will be fixed in next beta. Thanks for the report!

[C-Beats]

4 hours ago, Chris Kant said:

I am not sure if this is an issue with the newest beta but lets see:

when I want to import a new system with a folder with roms in it (example Atari 7800)

I am going through the wizard and receive a list of files Launchbox wants to import. I usually have to opportunity to delete files manually in this overview but it is no longer possible in this screen.

Yeah, I did see that the Drag/Drop import had an issue where one grid wouldn't let you delete, that should be fixed in next beta. The regular Import ROM wizard should let you though by pressing the delete key.

[Chris Kant]

great, thank you.

[Rlad]

I'm thinking SSD users will see a significant startup speed increase because the initial boot on my SSHD isnt much different but every subsequent boot (when it's cached onto the SSD part) is rapid.

[kobaturtle]

great update! Speed gain confirmed! Initial start faster as well as context menus

[Merovingio]

17 hours ago, kmoney said:

Definitely notice the faster startup times.☺️ 

How much faster?

[Merovingio]

11 minutes ago, zugswang said:

My 700 wheel setup now opens up in 30 seconds when on previous build it was over 1 minute, so a lot faster.

Launchbox also all installed on an external hard drive.

700 wheel setup? What does it mean, 700 games? 

[kmoney]

50 minutes ago, Mongu said:

How much faster?

I did not time it but have a AMD 5900x so it was fast already but I even noticed a 3 to 4 second decrease in startup time and in my arcade cabinet with a 8700K probably about the same decrease, maybe a little more. Both LaunchBox installs on a ssd hard drive.

[Retro808]

2 hours ago, Mongu said:

How much faster?

This will really be system dependent. Some users will see larger drops in load times than others. What causes the longest load delays is not as much the actual number of games, but more so the auto-populated playlists as they have to read the game data upon each load. So the more playlists of this type to longer load time takes.

[Merovingio]

3 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

This will really be system dependent. Some users will see larger drops in load times than others. What causes the longest load delays is not the actual number of games, but more so the auto-populated playlists as they have to read the game data upon each load. So the more playlists of this type to longer load time takes.

The truth is that My PC is quite fast considering the processor I have: Intel Core i3-8109U, in an Intel NUC barebone. The normal thing is that it appears in about 10-15 seconds.

[The Papaw]

v12.7.1 - When I use the "Games Missing Media", allow it to check the metadata, then trying to update what it finds, say box fronts or 3d boxes for the 400+ games, it just hangs on "Initializing process" for me. Cancel isn't working right either. I can close LB and try again, does same thing. Anyone else? 

Edited January 7, 2022 by The Papaw

[Retro808]

20 minutes ago, The Papaw said:

v12.7.1 - When I use the "Games Missing Media", allow it to check the metadata, then trying to update what it finds, say box fronts or box3d, it just hangs on "Initializing process" for me. Cancel isn't working right either. Have to kill the process. Anyone else? 

 

Just tested and it worked fine. What are the exact steps you took?

[The Papaw]

16 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

Just tested and it worked fine. What are the exact steps you took?

Select Games Missing Data

Allow it to refresh

Select Tools > Download > Update metadata and media

Choose only the options to download boxes and 3d boxes as far as what to download. Tried with and without emumovies

 

I got it to work by selecting 4-5 games, but if I select the 400+ it keeps initializing, the first time I let it go for over an hour

Edited January 7, 2022 by The Papaw

[The Papaw]

Something else I have found, but not sure if it related to this beta or LB in general. I have my media stored on a mapped NAS drive. I cn run cleanup on a single platform, i.e. Arcade, it finds 5000+ duplicates. (through a bunch more in there for testing to see how well it does). When I select ALL and try to "Move checked files to folder", it moves nothing. The delete works, but not the move