Question about multi disc games

[WeedZ]

So i've figured out that you can make one game entry in your launchbox library by adding (disc 1,2,etc.) after the game title for each disc iso. but how do you swap discs or choose which disc to load? whenever i select a multidisc game in bigbox it just picks disc 1 and launches the emulator.

[fraganator]

4 minutes ago, WeedZ said:

So i've figured out that you can make one game entry in your launchbox library by adding (disc 1,2,etc.) after the game title for each disc iso. but how do you swap discs or choose which disc to load? whenever i select a multidisc game in bigbox it just picks disc 1 and launches the emulator.

Hi @WeedZ

The best way to switch between discs in a multi-disc game is to use an M3U playlist file. LaunchBox can automatically generate an M3U file for multi-disc games, and the discs can then be swapped within the emulator. The M3U setting for an emulator can be enabled in the Tools->Manage->Emulators menu. Select and edit the emulator, then in the Additional Platforms page check the box in the Use M3U Playlists for Multiple Discs column:

You can launch a certain disc by selecting it in the Play Version menu, or the Additional Apps/Versions menu in BigBox.

[WeedZ]

awesome! cant wait to get this going when i get home. Thanks!

[poodadoo]

Follow up question: Does this only work with multi disc games that are stored outside .zip files?  My auto m3u creation is creating the m3u with (Disc 1).zip, (Disc 2).zip, etc... It feels like I have to store them uncompressed to get it to work.

[fraganator]

46 minutes ago, poodadoo said:

Follow up question: Does this only work with multi disc games that are stored outside .zip files?  My auto m3u creation is creating the m3u with (Disc 1).zip, (Disc 2).zip, etc... It feels like I have to store them uncompressed to get it to work.

It depends on the emulator (I think standalone mednafen supports m3u with zip) but in general yes, m3u works best with uncompressed zips, or with chd compressed ROMs.

If the multi-disc ROM files are zipped, you can use the Archive Cache Manager plugin (full disclosure - I'm the author). It will auto extract all the zip files in a multi-disc game, and then generate an m3u file pointing to the extracted files.

Another option is to extract the zips, then convert the resulting cue+bin to chd using chdman. You'd then need to update the game(s) in LaunchBox to point to the chd files. The LaunchBox generated m3u would then contain the chd files, which can be read by most emulators.

Another option again is to extract the zip files, and manually create an m3u file which contains the filenames of the extracted cue files of each disc. The game in LaunchBox can then be updated to point to the m3u file. When the game is already configured with an m3u file, an m3u won't be automatically generated, and is instead passed directly to the emulator.

[Matt Schehr]

Will Launchbox Generate an M3U File for PCSX2, Dolphin, GameCube, PSP, and Dreamcast Emulator. I dont know which one because I have launchbox but the Consoles i Mentioned dont use retroarch they use their own thats why I asked this Question.

[Retro808]

7 hours ago, Matt Schehr said:

Will Launchbox Generate an M3U File for PCSX2, Dolphin, GameCube, PSP, and Dreamcast Emulator. I dont know which one because I have launchbox but the Consoles i Mentioned dont use retroarch they use their own thats why I asked this Question.

Launchbox can make the M3U, but that is not the issue. The emulator has to support M3U format. I do not believe any of the stand-alone emulators for those system do. 

[Matt Schehr]

 

Ok that makes Sense I was trying to Swap to Disc 2 of Street Fighter collection for sega saturn using retroarch off of launchbox and went to select the disc and only saw disc 1 even though disc one and two were in the Upend section of the disk control how do i fix that because it has an .M3U file on it 

Edited August 28, 2023 by Matt Schehr
too big