12.16 Beta Thread

[faeran]

Hey everyone,

We are looking to put out a bugfix/QOL update, hopefully next week. In that vein, we have the first beta out and would love help testing the following changes:

• Improvement: Big Box RAM usage over time has been significantly reduced
• Improvement: Image region prioritization has been improved in several ways, which should help to reduce any region mismatches
• Improvement: When first starting LaunchBox as a premium user, game and platform details videos will now be automatically enabled
• Improvement: Added logic to allow LaunchBox to more accurately identify an additional app as a version instead of an app
• Fixed: The related game context menu now says "Install" instead of "Play" when a game needs to be installed
• Fixed: Auto-played music is no longer stopped by loading up game details when the Auto-Play Video setting is off inside of LaunchBox
• Fixed: Playing music in LaunchBox now pauses video playback in game details
• Fixed: Auto-played music that was paused when leaving LaunchBox now resumes when you return
• Fixed: Sometimes backing into a platform view in Big Box would not reload the details and resume video playback
• Fixed: Big Box platform views were not always respecting the Use Random Game Video setting
• Fixed: Starting LaunchBox with the Games Missing Media sidebar filter would sometimes throw errors
• Fixed: The FlowVideo control (used by theme developers) wasn't respecting the Use Random Game Video setting in all circumstances
• Fixed: Platform categories were not always displaying game totals correctly inside of Big Box
• Fixed: Some changes made by plugins weren't being saved correctly

Beta 2:

• Fixed: Possible crash with the LaunchBox context menu for GOG games with application paths that don't exist
• Fixed: The Change View popup in Big Box was sometimes playing the select sound twice when selecting a view
• Fixed: Videos will now play correctly in more themes when backing into Platform Views and Game Views

[C-Beats]

6 minutes ago, faeran said:

Improvement: Big Box RAM usage over time has been significantly reduced

@moudrost Can you see if these improvements help with your Big Box Attract mode stability as well and let us know if you see any positive or negative changes?
 

7 minutes ago, faeran said:

Improvement: Added logic to allow LaunchBox to more accurately identify an additional app as a version instead of an app

@maabus Can you confirm the issue you saw related to this is corrected?
 

8 minutes ago, faeran said:

• Fixed: Auto-played music is no longer stopped by loading up game details when the Auto-Play Video setting is off inside of LaunchBox
• Fixed: Playing music in LaunchBox now pauses video playback in game details
• Fixed: Auto-played music that was paused when leaving LaunchBox now resumes when you return

@jagarbet I believe the music related issues you brought up are corrected in this update, could you confirm?
 

9 minutes ago, faeran said:

Fixed: Big Box platform views were not always respecting the Use Random Game Video setting

@Zkyo This should resolve your report. Could you please confirm you see this corrected?
 

10 minutes ago, faeran said:

Fixed: Platform categories were not always displaying game totals correctly inside of Big Box

@skizzosjt This should resolve your game count issue you reported. Please confirm you see it corrected in this update.
 

11 minutes ago, faeran said:

Fixed: Some changes made by plugins weren't being saved correctly

@JoeViking245 Can you confirm you're seeing this update corrects the issues you brought up related to your plugin and data saving?
 

12 minutes ago, faeran said:

Fixed: Sometimes backing into a platform view in Big Box would not reload the details and resume video playback

@atbc @Thornback @skizzosjt Could you please confirm if this update corrects the behavior you reported in 12.15? If you do still have this issue please let me know what theme you are running so I can try and reproduce.

[JoeViking245]

3 hours ago, C-Beats said:

3 hours ago, faeran said:

Fixed: Some changes made by plugins weren't being saved correctly

@JoeViking245 Can you confirm you're seeing this update corrects the issues you brought up related to your plugin and data saving?

Works perfectly!  Thank you.

[skizzosjt]

Is it normal for the updates to make you update to the non-beta version first or something? I was on 12.15 beta 6 and when I did check for updates and it started downloading, it ended up downloading and installing 12.15 "vanilla" ?

So I then had to do the check for updates again and now I got the 12.16 beta, but I wanted to download this version from the get go.

Photo showing the funny sequence of download versions. I would have expected it to go from 12.15 beta 6 directly to 12.16 beta 1. I have "Check for Updates on Startup" and "Automatically Download Updates in the Background" OFF. Only "Update to Beta Releases" is checked ON

 

On 10/7/2022 at 3:38 PM, C-Beats said:

 

On 10/7/2022 at 3:24 PM, faeran said:

Fixed: Platform categories were not always displaying game totals correctly inside of Big Box

@skizzosjt This should resolve your game count issue you reported. Please confirm you see it corrected in this update.

This is all fixed up, the # of games are being reported correctly in Big Box. Thank you all!

 

On 10/7/2022 at 3:38 PM, C-Beats said:

 

On 10/7/2022 at 3:24 PM, faeran said:

Fixed: Sometimes backing into a platform view in Big Box would not reload the details and resume video playback

@atbc @Thornback @skizzosjt Could you please confirm if this update corrects the behavior you reported in 12.15? If you do still have this issue please let me know what theme you are running so I can try and reproduce.

This one, I'm sorry to report it's still capable to reproduce. I'm creating the issue by timing a select or back button press during the transition animation. I tried all the same themes, they are

Colorful 4k - reproduced with views Platform Wheel 1 and text list with details (I have custom edits on this theme, so made sure to try the default vanilla version and the issue persists regardless of custom edits)

Retro Console - reproduced with Platform Wheel 1, BUT, I could not get text list with details to create the issue **

Retrotastic - reproduced with Platform Wheel 1, BUT, I could not get text list with details to create the issue **

RetroFresh - reproduced with Platform Wheel 1. No videos in text list with details so no problem there

CoverBox - reproduced with views Platform Wheel 1 and text list with details

 

** = these themes didn't have it happen when in Text List With Details view ....BUT.....there is one scenario where I got it mess up. when I would switch from Platform Wheel 1 to Text List With Details view OR even if I was already in Text List With Details, if I selected Text List With Details view again, whatever platform was currently selected, the platform video gets messed up. But once you switch to another platform, I cannot recreate the issue on these themes when in Text List With Details view using the timed button press method

 

Further, after finding that ** way of making the video mess up I went back and checked all the themes again. Despite that the selected platform video is playing fine at this point, when you click to switch to Text List With Details again it screws up that selected video. So this seems to be an exception to recreate the issue, as I was def under the impression the only way I was making this happen was during the transition animation time frame.  And this happens whether you're in a different view and go to Text List With Details, or if you are already in Text List With Details and select Text List With Details again. This also impacts Category and Playlist videos

 

Just ran into a new one with the videos. Impacts Category, Platform and Playlist videos. When a video starts playing, if you change your selection but change back to the original selection without letting the video's audio stop playing, now the video is a black screen....BUT.....the audio is still playing. This happens with themes Colorful 4K Platform Wheel 1 and Text List With Details. I tried Coverbox, but only happens with Text List with Details and in that case it's the static image is shown instead. But with this theme in Platform Wheel 1 there doesn't look to be a transition as you make your new selection so the problem doesn't happen with that config.

Edited October 8, 2022 by skizzosjt

[Timber-eXoProjects]

On 10/7/2022 at 9:24 PM, faeran said:

Fixed: The related game context menu now says "Install" instead of "Play" when a game needs to be installed

Sounds great, but on what does this function depend on?
Is it whether the "Installed" check box is set or not in the edit tab? Or are there other dependencies?
And does this apply to all platforms or just Steam, GoG, Epic etc. games?

[Rlad]

Still got the Amy Winehouse bug.

[mcfilmmakers]

Just throwing this out there in case others noticed it, but since 12.15 I noticed that pressing F5 doesn't always refresh the images (the game list icons refresh, but not when you magnify to full screen). The only way I can fix it is by closing and relaunching Launchbox. Specifically, I am replacing existing clear logo images with new ones. I haven't noticed issues when simply adding a new image that didn't previously exist.

Edited October 10, 2022 by mcfilmmakers

[C-Beats]

19 hours ago, Rlad said:

Still got the Amy Winehouse bug.

What are your transitions set to? If you set them all to Quick Fade do you still see the issue?

[C-Beats]

On 10/9/2022 at 3:49 AM, Timber-eXoProjects said:

Sounds great, but on what does this function depend on?
Is it whether the "Installed" check box is set or not in the edit tab? Or are there other dependencies?
And does this apply to all platforms or just Steam, GoG, Epic etc. games?

All the storefronts have logic built into the app to determine if they need installed or not. I'd have to review the code to see how we handle that logic for games that have Installed = false and ensure the string is correct for that as well.

[Rlad]

2 hours ago, C-Beats said:

What are your transitions set to? If you set them all to Quick Fade do you still see the issue?

Transition is fade, Fade Quick has same issue, i tried Explode and Slide Horizontal but they don't work at all, just go to a black screen after the transition. I have to windows key out and edit the xml as i can't get back to the settings menu.

[C-Beats]

@skizzosjt The updater requiring the stable release before the beta release is intentional. This is so that you have the stable release installer available to you in case the beta has a bug in it and there is a need to downgrade to the latest stable build.

[C-Beats]

3 minutes ago, Rlad said:

Transition is fade, Fade Quick has same issue, i tried Explode and Slide Horizontal but they don't work at all, just go to a black screen after the transition. I have to windows key out and edit the xml as i can't get back to the settings menu.

I don't remember seeing your initial report on this. Is EVERYTHING black, or just the part that should be displaying a video? Does the wheel render as it should still?

[skizzosjt]

56 minutes ago, C-Beats said:

@skizzosjt The updater requiring the stable release before the beta release is intentional. This is so that you have the stable release installer available to you in case the beta has a bug in it and there is a need to downgrade to the latest stable build.

thanks for the explanation. good thing you're thinking of the worst case scenarios and preparing for them with such tactics because I obviously was not thinking that far ahead lol

[Rlad]

1 hour ago, C-Beats said:

I don't remember seeing your initial report on this. Is EVERYTHING black, or just the part that should be displaying a video? Does the wheel render as it should still?

 

 

I only noticed it when you suggested to try quick fade.

 

[C-Beats]

45 minutes ago, Rlad said:

I only noticed it when you suggested to try quick fade.

Going to assume this is you just confirming those transitions DO NOT work for you, but ARE NOT the transitions you were using when initially reporting this issue, is that correct?

[Rlad]

1 hour ago, C-Beats said:

Going to assume this is you just confirming those transitions DO NOT work for you, but ARE NOT the transitions you were using when initially reporting this issue, is that correct?

Correct

"Fixed: Sometimes backing into a platform view in Big Box would not reload the details and resume video playback"

is the initial bug

The video above is a seperate issue discovered.

 

[Sbaby]

Hi, sometimes during the game I use a browser on the second screen with youtube, but when I quit the game via LB pause, instead of quitting the game the browser closes and the game stays on

[neil9000]

1 minute ago, Sbaby said:

Hi, sometimes during the game I use a browser on the second screen with youtube, but when I quit the game via LB pause, instead of quitting the game the browser closes and the game stays on

Because you have clicked another display/window so the emulator no longer has focus when you use the exit command, so it closes the active window.

[Sbaby]

3 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

Because you have clicked another display/window so the emulator no longer has focus when you use the exit command, so it closes the active window.

bo, I've been playing like this for years, never happened to me, but ok. It is plausible!
I don't understand, though, why the pause menu sometimes pops up to me on the second screen 🧐

[Fugus]

Sbaby, I can vouch for neil9000 on this. When you have Launchbox setup to close the emulator for you, launchbox doesn't directly close the emulator, it closes whatever you have focus on at that time (Which it assumes is the emulator).

My personal way of doing it is not to enable that feature in Launchbox and instead configure every emulator I have to auto-close with a hotkey of my choosing which I set to the Playstation button on the DualSense controller.