LaunchBox for Android - 1.12 Beta Thread

[faeran]

Hi Everyone,

This post is reserved for anyone willing to help us with LaunchBox for Android 1.12 beta releases. You can opt into the beta releases in the app by going into Options and enabling the Update to Beta Releases option. Then restart the app and follow the steps.

Full Changelog: https://www.launchbox-app.com/android-about/change-log

 

For people that are either on Beta 2 or Beta 3, you will find that your update will freeze on the prompt that starts the LaunchBox update. If this happens to you, use a files app to navigate to your LaunchBox\Updates folder and install the latest apk file you find in there (which at the moment is beta 4), and you should be good to go.

 

Beta 1 contains the following changes:

• LaunchBox now keeps track of your games' play time automatically. Use your LaunchBox Games Database account to sync play times between all of your Android and Windows LaunchBox builds.
• The official Citra Nightly and Citra Canary emulators are now fully supported
• The PX68k, Citra, and BSNES RetroArch cores are now available for Sharp X68000, 3DS, and SNES respectively

 

Beta 2:

• RetroArch can now be automatically downloaded and installed when launching a game (if it's not installed already); this makes it super easy to get up and playing without the need for a user to set up RetroArch separately
• RetroArch cores can now be automatically downloaded and sent to RetroArch when launching a game (if the core is missing)
• A Manage RetroArch option is now available in the root menu, which allows you to download, install, and update RetroArch, and all its cores, with a touch of a button
• An "Add Downloaded Core..." value has been added to RetroArch's Default Core option. This will allow you to choose from core files that are placed inside of the following folder: \\LaunchBox\Emulators\RetroArch\Cores
• Play Time Tracking no longer requires notification permissions (however, it is highly beneficial to grant it)
• You can now sort by play time
• The following emulators are now fully supported: MAME4Droid 2024, Yuzu Early Access
• The Melon DS RetroArch core is now an available option for the Nintendo DS platform
• PPSSPP Gold will now launch on certain problematic devices (like the Odin 2 Pro)
• Menu text will now size dynamically based on a user's resolution and DPI settings
• A rare crash has been fixed caused by attempting to load an image that does not exist
• Turning the Cloud Sync feature off and on again would sometimes cause incorrect changes to local sync data

 

Beta 3:

• Small change to some default theme views which help with background fade displacement issues on select devices
• Many navigational crashes have been fixed across the app

 

Beta 4:

• Fixed issue where the app would freeze during the update process (introduced in beta 2)
• Pressing No when asked if you would like to install RetroArch will no longer try and launch the game
• Fixed a crash caused by video playback that may happen to some users when returning to LaunchBox after the RetroArch install process

 

Thanks to all who are willing to help us test our betas.

[Gtrevize]

Thanks for the new beta. I'll try it out and reports bugs and idea for improvement. If I may, 2 of the bigges issues I would like to be fixed if possible is the scrapping issue - crash every time their is a lot to scrape - and the import of media from pc by directly copying folders to the android folder - if possible of course and if clear enough. Expect that it is a great piece of software. Thank you again

Ps: I will also reports others bugs and ideas for improvements:)

[bundangdon]

Thanks a lot for adding the two Citra emulators! Just tested and both are working fine here, using a Samsung Galaxy S23

[faeran]

15 hours ago, bundangdon said:

Thanks a lot for adding the two Citra emulators! Just tested and both are working fine here, using a Samsung Galaxy S23

Good deal.

16 hours ago, Gtrevize said:

Thanks for the new beta. I'll try it out and reports bugs and idea for improvement. If I may, 2 of the bigges issues I would like to be fixed if possible is the scrapping issue - crash every time their is a lot to scrape - and the import of media from pc by directly copying folders to the android folder - if possible of course and if clear enough. Expect that it is a great piece of software. Thank you again

Ps: I will also reports others bugs and ideas for improvements:)

 

I'd recommend if you haven't already to open a separate thread and provide detailed information about your device, your LaunchBox library, your import settings and anything else you can think of that would help narrow down why you'd be seeing this.

[Gtrevize]

reported here.

Bug - still in new beta : 

- I tried to add Watara Supervision. Scan is OK, I have the import message process OK, no problem but the system is never displayed. Tried multiple time without any luck so far. 

scrapping : it seems to work a bit better in this beta - I was able to scrape my entire Finalb folder. but it crashes (launchbox close and goes back to andoid) after trying another system (megadrive, Snes...). still very unstable but better

feature requests:

- could you split mame and FinalB instead of all going to Arcade section ?

- could you add a "refresh folder" feature when adding new games to an already existing section. 

- could you also add Amiga 1200 and CDTV and MD  SU

- when adding a favorite game - could it be included directly in the corresponding system section (for ex. in, megadrive if it is a megadrive game) instead of one bulk with all system mixed favorite section. 

- when auto downloading missing media could you add an option to also download videos ? 

- possiblity to copy / paste (and then use) the video / media from pc ? 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Gtrevize

[ToniBC]

Hi, this beta keeps crashing when scraping collections for the missing media, no error or anything, it's just downloading and quits.

I tried selecting only one type of image, but the same thing happens and always at different points.

The PC version, if you encounter any errors, they are reported, but the program continues.

Something similar would have to be implemented, if there is an error when downloading, ignore it and move on to the next one.

Thank you.

[wjs2555]

我测试了新增加的citra模拟器，问题是从前端进入模拟器时屏幕会是黑色的。直接从模拟器。没有。我使用的模拟器版本是金丝雀-2681。还有一个bug：前端经常无故闪回。

[cult]

I'm getting consistent frequent crashes when attempting to scroll through All Games view under any Console with this release. Seems to not be tied to any of the themes as its happening in the default theme & custom themes. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help troubleshoot

[Avenger]

Concerning,Redream access from Launchbox for Android, I wrote in the redream discord and I think a moderator (but note, NOT the actual developer) answered.  He is stating that Launchbox doesn’t have scoped storage support which I don’t know is correct or not.

This is what he had to say with the images he provided.  I hope this helps.

——-

Eh .. tbh I'd say this is a launchbox issue that they're doing things the Android 10 way. They've had 4 major revisions to implement scoped storage.

(Note:see first image below)

This is misinformation. LaunchBox does not implement scoped storage and expects all other emulators to request access to all files on the users device? Daijisho can launch games via redream just fine on my android 14 device. Why? Because it implements scoped storage framework.

(Note: see second image below)

From what I remember, inolen did request all files access but google denied the request; I don't know why they are allowing it for other emulators, but really LaunchBox should consider adding scoped storage support

 

———

 

 

 

 

[Avenger]

On 11/25/2023 at 6:44 PM, Avenger said:

Concerning,Redream access from Launchbox for Android, I wrote in the redream discord and I think a moderator (but note, NOT the actual developer) answered.  He is stating that Launchbox doesn’t have scoped storage support which I don’t know is correct or not.

This is what he had to say with the images he provided.  I hope this helps.

——-

Eh .. tbh I'd say this is a launchbox issue that they're doing things the Android 10 way. They've had 4 major revisions to implement scoped storage.

(Note:see first image below)

This is misinformation. LaunchBox does not implement scoped storage and expects all other emulators to request access to all files on the users device? Daijisho can launch games via redream just fine on my android 14 device. Why? Because it implements scoped storage framework.

(Note: see second image below)

From what I remember, inolen did request all files access but google denied the request; I don't know why they are allowing it for other emulators, but really LaunchBox should consider adding scoped storage support

 

———

 

 

 

 

By the way, the developer of Redream wrote a small note agreeing with the above assessment.  Is there a chance Launchbox will ever work with Redream or will this be a stalemate at this point?

[Gtrevize]

On 11/21/2023 at 10:55 PM, faeran said:

Hi Everyone,

This post is reserved for anyone willing to help us with LaunchBox for Android 1.12 beta releases. You can opt into the beta releases in the app by going into Options and enabling the Update to Beta Releases option. Then restart the app and follow the steps.

Beta 1 contains the following changes:

• LaunchBox now keeps track of your games' play time automatically. Use your LaunchBox Games Database account to sync play times between all of your Android and Windows LaunchBox builds.
• The official Citra Nightly and Citra Canary emulators are now fully supported
• The PX68k, Citra, and BSNES RetroArch cores are now available for Sharp X68000, 3DS, and SNES respectively

 

Thanks to all who are willing to help us test our betas.

hello, that would be great to have a little feedback to all these request

[Avenger]

Yeah I went through the trouble to contact someone at Redream like was suggested in the pop up in Launchbox and got the some info from them.  It may not be what we wanted to hear but some feedback here would be appreciated.

[Gtrevize]

@faeran why asking for feedback if you don't answer to our messages. We are willing to participate to improve the Android version of Launbox (and there is a big room for improvement)....

Edited December 9, 2023 by Gtrevize

[faeran]

On 11/22/2023 at 4:11 PM, Gtrevize said:

reported here.

Bug - still in new beta : 

- I tried to add Watara Supervision. Scan is OK, I have the import message process OK, no problem but the system is never displayed. Tried multiple time without any luck so far. 

scrapping : it seems to work a bit better in this beta - I was able to scrape my entire Finalb folder. but it crashes (launchbox close and goes back to andoid) after trying another system (megadrive, Snes...). still very unstable but better

feature requests:

- could you split mame and FinalB instead of all going to Arcade section ?

- could you add a "refresh folder" feature when adding new games to an already existing section. 

- could you also add Amiga 1200 and CDTV and MD  SU

- when adding a favorite game - could it be included directly in the corresponding system section (for ex. in, megadrive if it is a megadrive game) instead of one bulk with all system mixed favorite section. 

- when auto downloading missing media could you add an option to also download videos ? 

- possiblity to copy / paste (and then use) the video / media from pc ? 

Thanks. I tried to recreate your issue with Watara Supervision, but in my tests they imported and played just fine.

I'm also glad scrapping was better for you, however, that's interesting since we haven't changed anything with that in this beta.

Love the requests, but if you don't want them getting lost in a beta feedback thread, you may want to open up an official request, top menu here under HELP & SUPPORT > REQUEST A FEATURE

On 11/23/2023 at 3:28 PM, ToniBC said:

Hi, this beta keeps crashing when scraping collections for the missing media, no error or anything, it's just downloading and quits.

I tried selecting only one type of image, but the same thing happens and always at different points.

The PC version, if you encounter any errors, they are reported, but the program continues.

Something similar would have to be implemented, if there is an error when downloading, ignore it and move on to the next one.

Thank you.

Nothing was adjusted in this beta with regards to importing or scraping games. You may want to open a separate thread where you can get proper support with more information about your device and circumstances.

On 11/25/2023 at 11:21 AM, wjs2555 said:

我测试了新增加的citra模拟器，问题是从前端进入模拟器时屏幕会是黑色的。直接从模拟器。没有。我使用的模拟器版本是金丝雀-2681。还有一个bug：前端经常无故闪回。

We were unable to recreate this internally. What device are you using?

On 11/25/2023 at 3:39 PM, cult said:

I'm getting consistent frequent crashes when attempting to scroll through All Games view under any Console with this release. Seems to not be tied to any of the themes as its happening in the default theme & custom themes. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help troubleshoot

This beta hasn't changed any of this code, so that's a curious thing. You'll want to open a separate thread where proper troubleshooting can take place. Don't forget to list your device, Android version, and anything else about LaunchBox that may be useful. I'll try and reply in that thread when I get some time.

On 11/27/2023 at 12:22 PM, Avenger said:

By the way, the developer of Redream wrote a small note agreeing with the above assessment.  Is there a chance Launchbox will ever work with Redream or will this be a stalemate at this point?

Thanks for reaching out to the Redream team. It's true that Scoped Storage complicates matters. It requires a Frontend to use a very specific file manager by Google that's not really controller friendly (the emulator itself also has to use it). Since scoped storage became a thing, a lot of emulators have built in frontend support into their emulators, essentially bypassing all those complicated steps for Frontends to go through to make launching into the emulators a possibility. Some emulators haven't yet done that. I'm guessing Redream is one of them, although I haven't tested it in a while. It's not out of the realm of possibility that we go through the process and get that file manager working inside of LaunchBox. It wouldn't be the most ideal solution for the user with the navigation challenges inherent with it, but unless the emulators themselves introduce specific frontend support, it may be our only option. We will have internal discussions about it, but it may take some time before a decision is made on this.

On 12/4/2023 at 5:15 AM, harrisoman8541 said:

Hey everyone,

I appreciate the effort put into the new LaunchBox for Android 1.12 beta releases. The addition of automatic playtime tracking and the synchronization feature with LaunchBox Games Database is a significant step forward in user convenience. It's great to see that the official Citra Nightly and Citra Canary emulators are now fully supported, broadening the range of available emulators.

However, I would like to suggest a more transparent communication approach regarding the potential bugs or issues users might encounter during beta testing. It's crucial for users to be aware of any known issues and possible workarounds to ensure a smoother testing process. Additionally, a dedicated section or thread for feedback could be beneficial for users to share their experiences and report any issues they encounter.

Thanks for considering these suggestions, and I look forward to the continued improvement of LaunchBox for Android.

Best regards,

Global Touch LLC

The best I can do here with more transparency is explain what we do. Whenever there's a report of a bug, we go through a lot of testing across our many devices to see if anything can be recreated. If not, there's little we can do to move forward. There's nothing that has been reported that we haven't internally tested ourselves. The issue comes with the amount of different devices and flavors of Android that could potentially make things difficult to solve. At this stage, there's no global bugs that need to be reported (bugs that affect everyone), but there could be many device specific bugs that few people experience or user specific issues.

If a user has a specific bug, we ask that they click on the HELP & SUPPORT > REPORT A BUG menu items at the top of this page, and open up a ticket for that particular crash. This allows us to keep track of them all more easily, and keeps things organized for our small team.

We will also be expanding our internal crash reporting tools in the next update, which should help things a lot, especially for device specific issues that users may come across.

On 12/9/2023 at 4:29 PM, Gtrevize said:

@faeran why asking for feedback if you don't answer to our messages. We are willing to participate to improve the Android version of Launbox (and there is a big room for improvement)....

Something to keep in mind, just because we don't answer everyone's messages, we are always reading them, testing everything we can, pushing forward everything we can, along with everything else we do behind the scenes. We are sorry if we can't get to a particular thread or message in a good amount of time, or if a particular message looks to be ignored. They are most definitely not.

In general though, this beta thread should mostly be used for beta specific feedback on features and changes that get introduced based on our changelog. Sometimes, it's hard to know the difference, so if you don't know, it's better to post. However, hopefully this post helps provide some better places for things like feature requests and user specific issues.

 

Thanks to everyone who has provided feedback up to this point. We are hoping to have a beta 2 out, but an ETA on that is still undetermined as there's a lot of work left to do on it.

[Gtrevize]

@faeran thanks for taking the time to answer. I'm glad you read everything we post 🙂 

I'm sure everyone will be happy to see that they got an answer.

I'll make the request in the appropriate section. For the watara, I was able to fix the issue. Actually the roms need to be zipped. if not it won't work. strange but it is OK now.

Please find the big instability with the scrapping issue and already that will be a big step forward  (I must have been lucky with FB scrapping + when you try MULTIPLE times, sometimes it works...) 

I'm sure Beta 2 will be great ! 

[faeran]

49 minutes ago, Gtrevize said:

@faeran thanks for taking the time to answer. I'm glad you read everything we post 🙂 

I'm sure everyone will be happy to see that they got an answer.

I'll make the request in the appropriate section. For the watara, I was able to fix the issue. Actually the roms need to be zipped. if not it won't work. strange but it is OK now.

Please find the big instability with the scrapping issue and already that will be a big step forward  (I must have been lucky with FB scrapping + when you try MULTIPLE times, sometimes it works...) 

I'm sure Beta 2 will be great ! 

Thanks. There will be a huge change with Beta 2, although not related to scrapping. Curious, when it crashes for you, are you letting LaunchBox handle scrapping while you navigate, or did you run the "Download All Missing Media" option?

[Gtrevize]

Greta news for the B2. Thanks for the teasing

To answer to your question I'm leaving LB does what it has to do without touching anything.  It crashes when I'm adding a new folder an/or when I run a "download all missing media". Sometime I even try to go step by step only downloading some medias (not all media at the same time) but as soon as there is more than 100 roms to scrap the chances of crashing are increasing rapidly. 

Any log anywhere that I could send you ? 

[faeran]

16 hours ago, Gtrevize said:

Greta news for the B2. Thanks for the teasing

To answer to your question I'm leaving LB does what it has to do without touching anything.  It crashes when I'm adding a new folder an/or when I run a "download all missing media". Sometime I even try to go step by step only downloading some medias (not all media at the same time) but as soon as there is more than 100 roms to scrap the chances of crashing are increasing rapidly. 

Any log anywhere that I could send you ? 

 

 

Thanks for the input. The next beta will include some better backend tools for us to hopefully track this stuff better. Let's wait for that to come out and then the next time you crash we'll get a report for it that will hopefully clue us into what's going on.

[Gtrevize]

On 12/11/2023 at 6:09 PM, faeran said:

Thanks. I tried to recreate your issue with Watara Supervision, but in my tests they imported and played just fine.

I'm also glad scrapping was better for you, however, that's interesting since we haven't changed anything with that in this beta.

Love the requests, but if you don't want them getting lost in a beta feedback thread, you may want to open up an official request, top menu here under HELP & SUPPORT > REQUEST A FEATURE

Issue #8355 SUBMITTED 

[Eyebrows Cat]

When I try to start the game with Citra MMJ (Storage Access Version), it seems to crash.