13.1 Beta Thread

[faeran]

5 hours ago, Retrofrogg said:

If you're waiting for packs to appear before you implement the ability to display the images within them - it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation isn't it. The images will be out there, but I think the packs aren't out there because no other frontend has this feature at present. If you build it, they will come. Personally, I was waiting for the feature to appear before I started working on image packs, as I didn't want to waste the time making them only for the feature never to appear.

But if it would help kick-start things, I could start off by making an NES pack for example. Do you have any preferred naming convention or does that not matter at this stage?

100%, which it was for just one spine, and at this point we've taken the chance on that. Remember, there's something like 180 platforms in our database, so there's obviously a lot to cover there, and we are monitoring the situation with this one very closely, as well as the whole feature as a whole.

Make the naming convention similar to what our image pack importer feature can consume and you'll be okay.

5 hours ago, Retrofrogg said:

I can imagine that overall, left and right spines should be available for most systems, though top and bottom spines will likely be more challenging to source.

If you find sources that have complete, full box scans with all spines included, send me a PM. Looking for 100% coverage of released games for a system, which could help show that these images exist.

5 hours ago, Retrofrogg said:

I can imagine that overall, left and right spines should be available for most systems, though top and bottom spines will likely be more challenging to source. One way around this would be to add the option of having a vertical rotation "lock" for the 3D model box (per platform), so that the box only rotates horizontally and the top and bottom spines therefore don't come into it. I had actually already requested this feature on Github - as when using a mouse, box rotation in Launchbox is a bit cumbersome as it tends to flip about the X axis.

The good news is that we've seen your request. Adding it to bitbucket was a good idea. At the moment it's not planned to be implemented in the short term, but since it's now on bitbucket people can vote for it which helps us keep informed.

[Baggio]

23 hours ago, faeran said:

I believe you mean the European regional variants of these, which are a bit thicker, in depth, than the rest of the world. They are, however, each a very specific model type, and we are looking in ways to eventually include them. This will probably not happen for this next version though.

Ok thanks.  I didn't realise the cases were diffferent sizes i just thought the design of the covers were different.  Good to know you are adding them eventually.

 

Quote

Are you talking about the clear plastic that appears in front of the left and right spines on a PS1 jewel case?

Yeah.   This is how they are in comparison.   It looks really odd as the front and back are nowhere near as washed out as the spines are.

  

[faeran]

Beta 6 is out with the following (we don't talk about what happened to beta 5):

• New Feature: A new option to automatically start applications alongside LaunchBox or Big Box has been added to LaunchBox's Options > General > Startup Applications.
• Improvement - LaunchBox Plugins can now correctly read StateManager.SelectedPlatform and are notified when a sidebar value changes (for plugin devs)
• Improvement: The jewel case 3D model has been updated to include ribs on the top, bottom, and front spines
• Fixed: Box - Full images were being used incorrectly in some models

[Retrofrogg]

First rule of beta 5...don't talk about beta 5.

[spycat]

I like the Jewel Case and Long Jewel Case options.
I'm currently doing Box Front, Back and Spine coverart for disk games that came packaged in clear plastic cases that did not have the solid ribbed area and the front artwork inlay filled the case just like the back inlay did.
See the two attached images - the rear view is fine but the front view breaks the original flow of the case artwork.
Just wondering if there are plans to add this option to the current two Jewel Case views.
 

[C-Beats]

@PaulyC Can you confirm the left/right side of the jewel case looks better for you in beta 6?

@spycat we have a clear spine variant, have you tried that?

[Baggio]

4 hours ago, C-Beats said:

@PaulyC Can you confirm the left/right side of the jewel case looks better for you in beta 6?

@spycat we have a clear spine variant, have you tried that?

I don't know if its a placebo but i think the right is better the left.  The left still looks a little washed out compared to the rest of the case but the right i'd say is almost there.

Heres a video to show what i'm seeing 

Thanks for modifying this menail thing so quickly lol.   Oh and nice work on the ribs on top and bottom they make it look very realistic.

Edited January 11, 2023 by PaulyC

[Sbaby]

On 11/28/2022 at 10:35 PM, faeran said:

Beta 6

• New Feature: A new option to automatically start applications alongside LaunchBox or Big Box has been added to LaunchBox's Options > General > Startup Applications.

 

Thanks a lot for this feature 🥰 this way i can delete my old ahk on startup, thanks !

At this point you could also enter a small option that can close the app when the launchbox closes 😏

[superrob3000]

23 hours ago, faeran said:

Improvement - LaunchBox Plugins can now correctly read StateManager.SelectedPlatform and are notified when a sidebar value changes (for plugin devs)

Thank you for this. SelectionChanged System Events now fire when selecting platforms in LaunchBox, which is great. I do have one request though. Can the game selection be cleared out when selecting a new platform/playlist/platform category?

As an example, let's say I have pac-man selected in the Arcade platform. Then I click on the Teknoparrot platform in the left sidebar. I'm now viewing the Teknoparrot platform with no games selected, so I would expect SelectedPlatform to be reported as TeknoParrot and SelectedGames to be reported as null. What actually happens is SelectedPlatform is reported as TeknoParrot and SelectedGames is still reported as pac-man.

[JoeViking245]

30 minutes ago, superrob3000 said:

SelectedPlatform is reported as TeknoParrot and SelectedGames is still reported as pac-man.

For this, I created a placeholder for the selected game.   IGame currentGame

And then to catch if it's a platform change

if (PluginHelper.StateManager.GetAllSelectedGames() != null && PluginHelper.StateManager.GetAllSelectedGames()[0] == currentGame)

[superrob3000]

7 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

For this, I created a placeholder for the selected game.   IGame currentGame

And then to catch if it's a platform change

if (PluginHelper.StateManager.GetAllSelectedGames() != null && PluginHelper.StateManager.GetAllSelectedGames()[0] == currentGame)

Thanks! I might steal that workaround. But I can think of a few cases that would break it. Select a game in a platform. Then select a playlist containing that game...and select that game. That would still look like a platform change instead of a game selection.

[JoeViking245]

7 minutes ago, superrob3000 said:

That would still look like a platform change instead of a game selection.

Correct.  So you need to get creative.  But it is possible to account for that.  [tested and verified]

[spycat]

@C-Beats

I tried the clear variant but it just made the ribbed area transparent.
What I'm hoping for is a style where the front coverart fills the entire front area allowing it to butt up against the spine art, similar to the 3D box back view.
 

[C-Beats]

14 hours ago, spycat said:

@C-Beats

I tried the clear variant but it just made the ribbed area transparent.
What I'm hoping for is a style where the front coverart fills the entire front area allowing it to butt up against the spine art, similar to the 3D box back view.
 

Interesting. Don't know that I've ever seen a CD case that looked like that.

[Rlad]

The back insert is visible through the clear case, is that what you're saying?

 

or like this on a double case

 

Edited January 13, 2023 by Rlad

[C-Beats]

I read the statement as being closer to the latter image.

[spycat]

Yes, similar to the latter although not as wide. See the photos of an actual game case.
 

[Baggio]

The 3DO EU/UK cases are like that as well so it would be great to have a single jewel case without the spine and a double jewel case to boot lol

[Retrofrogg]

Hey don't forget the Cassette case (single & double) - C64, CPC, etc etc!

[spycat]

Also, the large clear disk case I mentioned above had a "portrait" variant which had a width to height aspect of approx 3:4 and that, too, would be welcome down the line.