Launchbox 1.13 issues

[HugoBR]

Hi everyone ! I recently updated my Launchbox app to version 1.13, some great features were added, but I'm experience long load times (about 30s) while initiating the app and it randomly shutdowns while browsing games that have gameplay vídeos. I am using a Redmi note 9s phone with Android 12.

Edit: also it seems that the "recently played" category list isn't updating 

Edited May 1 by HugoBR

[faeran]

1 hour ago, HugoBR said:

Hi everyone ! I recently updated my Launchbox app to 1.13 version, great features was added, but I'm experience long load times (about 30s) while iniciating the app and random shutdowns while browsing games that have gameplay vídeos. I am using a Redmi note 9s phone and Android 12.

 

Edit: also it seems that the "recently played" category list isn't updating 

Thanks for the report. We are currently cataloging all of the crash reports and we'll be patching them all up as quickly as we can.

[bigports]

Launchbox has become unusable since this update. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling, nothing works. Not impressed as just renewed my license in order to get this update. Launchbox stuck on loading screen. My phone is the samsung galaxy s10

Edited May 2 by bigports

[Swifty]

Since updating to the Official release of 1.13 some videos won't play correctly, there is audio but no video. If I revert LaunchBox back to a previous version such as 1.13-beta-3 the videos work fine. I've also tried toggling the option "Use Hardware Decoding for VLC Video Playback" in the Official release of 1.13 but it doesn't help.

 

Update: It seems to be platform specific, the videos in for example Atari 2600 don't play video, but they do on platform Atari 5200. If I copy a video from the Atari 5200 video folder and paste it into the Atari 2600 video folder and rename it to a game that exists. I then select that game on the Atari 2600 platform and the video will play audio only. I just wanted to rule out a  video decoding issue.

Edited May 3 by Swifty
More detail

[faeran]

17 hours ago, bigports said:

Launchbox has become unusable since this update. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling, nothing works. Not impressed as just renewed my license in order to get this update. Launchbox stuck on loading screen. My phone is the samsung galaxy s10

Sorry to hear. This is definitely not the normal experience, we even test on a very similar device. Can you zip up your Data folder from your phone and PM it to me. We can at least take a look at it for you.

51 minutes ago, Swifty said:

Since updating to the Official release of 1.13 some videos won't play correctly, there is audio but no video. If I revert LaunchBox back to a previous version such as 1.13-beta-3 the videos work fine. I've also tried toggling the option "Use Hardware Decoding for VLC Video Playback" in the Official release of 1.13 but it doesn't help.

 

Update: It seems to be platform specific, the videos in for example Atari 2600 don't play video, but they do on platform Atari 5200. If I copy a video from the Atari 5200 video folder and paste it into the Atari 2600 video folder and rename it to a game that exists. I then select that game on the Atari 2600 platform and the video will play audio only. I just wanted to rule out a  video decoding issue.

Thanks for the report. We don't see this happening, but we'll take a closer look and see if anything funny is going on with your example.

[Swifty]

I fixed my issue. I was using the "Unified Lite - Vertical Wheel" theme when I had the video issues, when I used the theme "wheel with Details and set the video to play in the background that how I found that the video does play.

So al I did was to go back to the original theme "Unified Lite - Vertical Wheel" and from there go to View Setting and remove the "Background Videos" option, I never had to do this before.

Everything is now good, thanks again.

[faeran]

8 minutes ago, Swifty said:

I fixed my issue. I was using the "Unified Lite - Vertical Wheel" theme when I had the video issues, when I used the theme "wheel with Details and set the video to play in the background that how I found that the video does play.

So al I did was to go back to the original theme "Unified Lite - Vertical Wheel" and from there go to View Setting and remove the "Background Videos" option, I never had to do this before.

Everything is now good, thanks again.

I see, that makes sense, thanks for following up.

[spectral]

I'm also having the issue of the app taking much longer too load now. On my Phone (Poco F3) it's significantly increased but still fast enough to be usable. On my tablet( Fire Max 11) it takes so long to load now that the tablet goes to sleep. Is there anywhere available to download older versions? As it stands its not unusable on the tablet, it was fine in previous versions.

[HugoBR]

On 5/4/2024 at 6:07 PM, spectral said:

I'm also having the issue of the app taking much longer too load now. On my Phone (Poco F3) it's significantly increased but still fast enough to be usable. On my tablet( Fire Max 11) it takes so long to load now that the tablet goes to sleep. Is there anywhere available to download older versions? As it stands its not unusable on the tablet, it was fine in previous versions.

Yeah, I'd like to download the previus version too, because on Redmi 9s phone It takes too much time to load

[faeran]

Check your LaunchBox\Updates folder for an older version. You would first need to delete LaunchBox off of your device, and then install the older apk.

And just to update, we investigated what has changed and the only thing that has changed during the startup is a check for the new navigation sounds. Not sure why that would take a lot of time on low powered devices (we test for as low as the Retroid Pocket 2+ and haven't seen any slowdowns), but we are looking at potentially a better way at handling that check.

[spectral]

17 hours ago, faeran said:

Check your LaunchBox\Updates folder for an older version. You would first need to delete LaunchBox off of your device, and then install the older apk.

And just to update, we investigated what has changed and the only thing that has changed during the startup is a check for the new navigation sounds. Not sure why that would take a lot of time on low powered devices (we test for as low as the Retroid Pocket 2+ and haven't seen any slowdowns), but we are looking at potentially a better way at handling that check.

Its not just low powered devices. While not so slow as to be unusable even on the Poco F3 which uses a snapdragon 870 the load time is significantly longer than it was before. I know by todays standards its not a powerhouse but its also no slouch performance wise.

Edit: I went back to 1.12 on the tablet and the load time went back to normal. On 1.12 it takes around a second on the initializing interface screen. On 1.13 it takes anywhere between 30-45 seconds.

Edited May 7 by spectral

[faeran]

13 hours ago, spectral said:

Its not just low powered devices. While not so slow as to be unusable even on the Poco F3 which uses a snapdragon 870 the load time is significantly longer than it was before. I know by todays standards its not a powerhouse but its also no slouch performance wise.

Edit: I went back to 1.12 on the tablet and the load time went back to normal. On 1.12 it takes around a second on the initializing interface screen. On 1.13 it takes anywhere between 30-45 seconds.

I'll reach back out in this thread once we have a beta to see if it improves the time on your devices.

[faeran]

For anyone that was experiencing longer startup times in 1.13, we just released the first beta for version 1.14. If you can, it would be nice to load up the beta and report back in that thread on how it's performing for you:

 

[spectral]

1 hour ago, faeran said:

For anyone that was experiencing longer startup times in 1.13, we just released the first beta for version 1.14. If you can, it would be nice to load up the beta and report back in that thread on how it's performing for you:

 

I just tried the new beta. After first installing it it stalled quite a while on "loading navigation sounds", but subsequent loads are much improved. Not quite as fast as 1.12 but only slower by a second or two now on the tablet and next to no difference on the phone.

[HugoBR]

Tried the version 1.14 beta1, the initial load time is quite the same as the version 1.12, at least for me, much better. But the app still randomly crash when browsing games (I'm using the Alisia theme for platforms).

[x4ml]

6 hours ago, HugoBR said:

Tried the version 1.14 beta1, the initial load time is quite the same as the version 1.12, at least for me, much better. But the app still randomly crash when browsing games (I'm using the Alisia theme for platforms).

Are you using the same theme for the games page?

[HugoBR]

16 hours ago, x4ml said:

Are you using the same theme for the games page?

Yes, the Alisia theme. For platforms selection I'm using the "banners" theme.

[x4ml]

23 hours ago, HugoBR said:

Tried the version 1.14 beta1, the initial load time is quite the same as the version 1.12, at least for me, much better. But the app still randomly crash when browsing games (I'm using the Alisia theme for platforms).

Can we ask you to send us the .XML file of the games of the platform you are using when the app crashes? (You can find it in LaunchBox -> Data -> Platforms -> <selected platform>.xml).
It will also be helpful to know your Android device model

[HugoBR]

13 hours ago, x4ml said:

Can we ask you to send us the .XML file of the games of the platform you are using when the app crashes? (You can find it in LaunchBox -> Data -> Platforms -> <selected platform>.xml).
It will also be helpful to know your Android device model

Tested today and it crashed while browsing my nes and ps1 catalog. I have a Redmi 9s phone with Android 12.

Nintendo Entertainment System.xml Sony Playstation.xml

[Xyb0t]

This was my first install, running an Odin 2 pro. I got HUGE loading times, then i tried the beta, and it speeds things up really nice 👍

I do have one issue with the screen brightness. If i start up Launchbox and touch any physical control (d-pad or the likes), the screen brightness is reduced even though brightness gauge is still at 100%. I need to shut down and re-open Launchbox for brightness to turn back to normal. There are no issues if i use touchscreen. Only when i use any physical control..... but this might be a bug in latest fw update from AYN. Gonna investigate.