FAQ: Reducing Your LaunchBox Build Size

[AstroBob]

LaunchBox is designed to be portable, allowing you to move your LaunchBox folder to another location or machine, and everything should work seamlessly. You can learn more about LaunchBox's portability and how to move it between PC's in our FAQ here. However, as you add more games and media to your library, the size of your LaunchBox build can grow quickly. In this guide, we’ll explore how to keep your build neat and tidy, saving space while maintaining functionality. Let’s get started!

 

Games
Games will most likely be the largest thing in your collection, especially with CD-based games, they can take up a lot of space. How you store games is very much down to personal preference, but if you're really short on space, here are some things you could try:

1. Compress ROMs and Extract Before Running
Certain emulators, like RetroArch, allow you to store ROMs in compressed formats like .zip and extract them only when needed.

• Pros: Saves space for medium to large sized games.
• Cons: Extraction times can be noticeable for larger systems.

To enable this:
Go to Tools > Manage > Emulators, select RetroArch, and check the box for Extract ROMs Before Running.

Note: Some systems such as Arcade come in a compressed format, but require that you do not extract them.

2. Use Compressed Formats for CD-Based Games
CD-based games are notorious for being particularly large in file size. Common formats include ISO, which is an exact copy of an entire optical disk but often contains a lot of data that isn't required to play the game. If you do not intend to play these games on original hardware, you may want to look into compressing them, to allow for smaller file sizes whilst retaining all aspects of the game.

Compressing CD-based systems is a whole other topic, and again, it comes down to personal taste and the emulators/systems you are using, so we won't cover them here, however as a starting place, a lot of users prefer .CHD files, as a way to save significant space.

There's even a LaunchBox plugin from one of our community members that will convert games to .CHD for you, directly within LaunchBox!

 

3. Store Games in a Separate Location
While it’s preferred to keep games within your LaunchBox directory for maximum portability, we understand not everyone wants to do this. During the import process, you can choose to leave games in their current location instead of moving them to the LaunchBox folder if you choose.

Alternatively, if you decide you want to relocate games within your LaunchBox directory to an external one, here’s how you can do that:

• Highlight the desired games.
• Go to Tools > File Management > Change ROMs Folder Path for Selected Games.
• Follow the prompts to update file paths.

 

 

Media
Media files, like images and videos play a key role in LaunchBox’s design. However, with larger builds, the amount of images and videos can quickly build up. While this won’t impact performance, media types such as videos can quickly fill up space on disk, so it’s worth keeping an eye on them for those with smaller hard drives. Here’s some tips on how to manage them:

1. Limit Image Downloads
Whenever you use LaunchBox's Download Meteadata and Media Wizard, take note of the Image download limit (per group). This limit indicates how many images (e.g., background, clear logos, screenshots, etc.) it will download for each group. 

It is generally recommended to keep this at 1, however you can increase this if you want. If an image group has more than one image available, it will choose the one to display based on region of the game file, or when that is unknown, your region priorities, when that image group is displayed in either LaunchBox or Big Box.

Note: Remember that this limit applies to the image group, not individual image types. For example, Screenshot - Gameplay and Screenshot - Title Screen are part of the Screenshots image group. So, even if you select both options but set your limit to 1, it will only download one image. You can adjust the priority of these groups under Tools > Options > Media, and select the group priorities you'd like to adjust (premium required).

 

2. Only Download Media Types Used by Your Theme
If your LaunchBox or Big Box themes only uses a few image types (e.g., box fronts, clear logos), avoid downloading extras like banners or 3D boxes as they will never be used by your themes. You can choose which media types to download during import.

For example, the Default theme in Big Box only uses a combination of Box Front, Clear Logo, Background & Screenshot (+ Box Back & Spine if you use the 3D Model feature). Keeping a lean media set like this ensures you still get the most visually appealing presentation of your games, whilst cutting down on space.

Note: Since you can technically use multiple themes for different parts of Big Box, just make sure you're only keeping media that is used by each of those themes.

 

3. Run Cleanup Media
If you find yourself in a situation where you may have downloaded an excess of media, the Cleanup Media tool may be the answer for you:

• Go to Tools > Clean Up Media.
• Select select the currently viewed platform, or all platforms.
• Select which media types to clean up (images, videos, music etc)

Note: You also have the option to scan for duplicates with the Scan Images for Rough Matches option. This will intelligently scan your images for any duplicates, even if they are technically two different files (ie. not the same md5 hash). This will take a long time, so you won’t need to run this frequently, but it’s worth doing every once in a while.

 

4. Use the Audit Window
You can use the Audit window to easily identify how much media you have per image group. Simply go to Tools > Audit and select either All Games or a specific Platform.

You’ll be presented with a detailed view of all scanned games and their associated metadata. By scrolling to the right, you can see how many images each game has for each image group. Clicking on the column headers allows you to sort by any field.

For example, if you accidentally downloaded multiple box arts for a game but only need one, you could sort by the Box - Front column, identify the games with the highest number of images, and edit them directly from this window to clean up their media.

Tip: While you can't delete images across multiple games at once from this view, you can also remove images via your file explorer. Let's say for example I downloaded 3D boxes for all my games, but my theme doesn't use them. I can go into LaunchBox > Images, and then under each platform, looks for the Box - 3D folder, and delete it. Use caution when doing this, and make sure you know what you are deleting first.

 

5. Take Note of Video Quality
Videos are the media type most likely to take up the most storage space in LaunchBox. While they look fantastic and add a distinct visual flair to your build, they also come with the largest file sizes. Videos can only be downloaded from EmuMovies. If you don’t need them, ensure you deselect videos during the media import process to save space.

Additionally, some video types, such as Video - Gameplay, offer options for High Quality or Low Quality versions. Unless your theme features full-screen videos and you’re using a high-resolution display, the low-quality option should still provide satisfactory visuals while significantly reducing file size.

 

 

 

Emulators
Each emulator will often require, or create additional files that can quickly build up over time. While we can’t cover suggestions for every emulator out there, here are some common things to look out for and that you can try to keep your emulators neat and tidy:

 

Texture Packs
Higher-end emulators like Dolphin, PCSX2, Cemu and more give you the option to download and/or import high-resolution texture packs. These are normally quite large in file files, so you may want to clean these out for games that you are not playing regularly.

Tip: You could even use a custom field in LaunchBox to mark which games have texture packs installed, and then create an auto-playlist to easily reference games as candidates to have their texture packs cleaned out

 

Cache Files
It’s quite common for higher-end emulators to cache certain pieces of information, either before or during gameplay, to ensure quicker access the next time you play. Common examples include shaders, which are generated either at runtime or as you play the game. The intention is to cache this information to improve performance and reduce loading times in subsequent sessions.

Over time, these cache files can build up, but most emulators that generate these cache files, will also give you the option to clear them out. It can be handy to occasionally clear out caches for games you haven’t played in a while. 

For example, in RCPS3, simply right-click on a game, go to remove and then select Remove ALL Caches. Other emulators like Cemu have a similar option

How to remove cache files in RCPS3

 

Saves & States
Saves and save states for most lower-end systems are generally incredibly small in file-size, and so won’t take up a huge amount of space on disk. That said, you can use LaunchBox’s save management feature to identify saves and save states that are no longer in use, and even delete them directly from this interface.

To learn more about how to do this, check out our article here:

For larger systems (e.g RCPS3), save states are known to be particularly large in file size, so you may want to routinely clear out save states that are no longer in use.

 

 

Themes

Uninstall Unused Themes

There is a treasure trove of themes available for Big Box, and the `Manage Themes` interface in Big Box allows you to easily download and install themes directly within the app. That said, some themes are beefy in size, and when you've made the decision that a theme just isn't for you, remembering to delete it will save you that extra needed space.

In Big Box:

• Go to System Settings > Manage Themes.
• Here you'll see a section for all your installed themes, with the option to uninstall any unused ones.
• The same applies to Startup & Pause Themes, you can follow the same process under the Manage Startup Themes and Manage Pause Themes section.

For LaunchBox themes:

• Go to Tools > Manage > LaunchBox Themes.
• Follow the same process to uninstall any themes not in active use

 

System Files

Remove previous update/beta installers

Whenever you update to a newer version of LaunchBox (including betas), the installer for this version is downloaded to your LaunchBox > Updates directory. These installations are not automatically deleted from here, just in case users need to revert to a previous version.

If you've been using LaunchBox for a while and never looked at this directory, you may have quite a few redundant installers in there. Each one of these installers can be upwards of 300+MB, so if you don't have any need for them, you can safely delete them

 

Remove unwanted backups
LaunchBox automatically keeps up to 25 backups of your Data directory, which stores all the metadata for your library. These are located at LaunchBox > Backups and while these backups are generally small in file size, if you have a very large library, you may want to periodically clean out older backups to save space.

Warning: It is highly recommended to keep at least one backup of your LaunchBox directory in case you need to restore it in the future. Ensure you understand the implications before deleting any backups, and double-check that you won’t need them later.

Double Warning: You can disable LaunchBox’s automatic backup feature by navigating to Options > Data > Backups and unchecking Automatically back up the LaunchBox XML data files. However, this is not recommended. Only disable this option if you are confident in your ability to manage backups manually and are regularly creating your own backups.

 

Summary
By implementing these strategies, you can keep your LaunchBox build lean and efficient:

• Optimize game storage with compression or external locations.
• Limit media downloads and clean up unused files.
• Regularly maintain emulator folders and themes.
• Remove redundant install files.

Taking a little time to manage your build can go a long way in ensuring smooth performance and saving precious storage space.

Have more tips? Share them in the comments! 🎮