Retroarch only launches games manually and not through Launchbox

[SolarisSpell]

Hello

 

For a long time I have been using Launchbox with Retroarch without problems, but now something strange is not allowing me to play games.
When trying to run a game from Launchbox, nothing happens. Retroarch doesn't even open, no error message. But if I use the option to open Retroarch and inside I run the game, it works without problems.

At this point I have done a lot of tests with Associated Platforms, changing the cores, updating, going back to older versions... and nothing. Last year I even played Dragon Quest IV on DS without problems, but now I was going to start VI and it's impossible.

 

Even if I had to relocate everything, I did a clean install from scratch. Installed Launchbox 13.18, let it import Nintendo DS games, it automatically installed Retroarch... I let it do everything by default, so as not to touch anything unusual. And it doesn't work.

 

It's getting pretty frustrating that after so long organizing a collection to one's liking, now something that used to work no longer does.

Are there any possible ideas as to what may have changed?

 

Thanks

 

EDIT: 

It turns out that the problem has occurred since version 13.15

I had rolled back to earlier versions, but not enough. With version 13.14 it works.
Lately I've been playing SNES games (and with SNES there is no problem), so I didn't detect any problem when the version changed. Could there have been a change with how the command to call RetroArch is executed?

 

Edited January 10 by SolarisSpell

[Kurtastrophe]

Not sure if it's the same problem that I've experienced. However, I've noticed that in the dependencies, they will not be detected if they are in the retroarch/system folder in Launchbox. They do detect in retroarch standalone. So emulators in Launchbox that have dependencies would have a problem. Try copying the dependencies for the emulator that you want to use outside of the retro arch folder, perhaps best in the rom folder for the system you're trying to run. Re-associate the dependencies in "Launchbox only" and see if it now works. Do not move or delete anything from the retroarch system folder. Just copy needed files to the new location (preferably that systems rom folder and not in retroarch)

[SolarisSpell]

Thanks for the reply Kurtastrophe, but unfortunately it didn't work.

 

Something strange must have happened with the Retroarch integration. Going back to version 13.14 it works, except for PSX games with multiple CDs. If I remove the multiple CDs and leave it at just one, it does work. Also, if I change the multiple CDs and instead of being .chd extension I create a .bin/.cue on a .7z it also works.

 

If I use the Manage Emulators option, it doesn't seem to change anything. I even removed Retroarch completely, reinstalled it and Launchbox only told me that I had set Retroarch as default emulator for Nintendo 64 and Nintendo DS and for the other platforms it didn't tell me anything. When I tried to run a SNES game at that time it told me that I didn't have any emulator even though the associated platform was set. (The only way to get those platforms to recognize again that they were assigned to Retroarch was to restore a backup version of the files inside Data/Platforms).

 

Is it created some file in Launchbox that controls the Retroarch integrations and its assigned cores? I would like to try to modify that file manually in case I can identify the problem. In Data/Emulators.xml I have seen that it is assigned and the command line to run the core appears, but maybe the fact of using Additional Applications for multiple CDs affects somehow.

 

Thanks

[Kurtastrophe]

I would try selecting all of the games of the platform you're trying to work with right clicking the selected games and choosing batch edit. Then choosing the emulator and take it from there and see if that helps. Also what I did is I took my system folder outside of retroarch and then in the launchbox emulator management I chose retroarch and then I then I went one by one selecting the dependency for all the systems systems and pointed each one to the system folder outside of retroarch. Then launchbox creates a new system file within retroarch with only the system files that I am selecting in the dependencies. This in turn has cleaned up My system folder. I found a link in GitHub that includes every single dependency file that is required by retroarch as well which was great for making sure I had every single file and made it very easy to reassociate the dependencies. The username on GitHub is Abdess and the project is called retroarch_ system. The release is BIOS pack v20220308. After copying those files into your system folder then of course do all your online updates through retroarch. Also make sure that you have the correct bios and devices files from your version of Maine games. I like to keep mine updated to the most recent releases so I stay up on any updates for Mame through pleasuredome.github.io 

 

As far as utilizing multiple discs you can create a .M3U playlist for each game that points to the multiple discs. In some cases depending on the ROMs you downloaded it might already have it included. At which case then once you run the main game you can go into retroarch and change the settings for how other discs are loaded if you haven't already done so.I would try selecting all of the games of the platform you're trying to work with right clicking the selected games and choosing batch edit. Then choosing the emulator and take it from there and see if that helps. Also what I did is I took my system folder outside of retroarch and then in the emulator I then chose each of the systems one by one in the dependencies and then pointed each one to the system folder outside of retroarch. Then launchbox creates a new system file with only the system files that I am selecting in the dependencies. This in turn has cleaned up My system folder. I found a link in GitHub that includes every single dependency file that is required by retroarch as well which was great for making sure I had every single file and made it very easy to reassociate the dependencies. The username on GitHub is Abdess and the project is called retroarch_ system. The release is BIOS pack v20220308. After copying those files into your system folder then of course do all your online updates through retroarch. Also make sure that you have the correct bios and devices files from your version of Maine games. I like to keep mine updated to the most recent releases so I stay up on any updates for Mame through pleasuredome.github.io 

As far as utilizing multiple discs you can create a .M3U playlist for each game that points to the multiple discs. In some cases depending on the ROMs you downloaded it might already have it included. At which case then once you run the main game you can go into retroarch and change the settings for how other discs are loaded if you haven't already done so.

Edited January 11 by Kurtastrophe

[SolarisSpell]

Thank you for the information.

 

I don't know what could have gone wrong or what the exact solution would be. In the end I have been applying many changes to get it to respond. And thanks for the information on the repository. I have applied some dependency files that I didn't have previously.

 

The strangest thing is that my retro configuration has been set up for a few years and when I got it ready I tested that everything worked. The M3U lists thing has generated some very strange problems for me. As I commented in the previous post, if the game has multiple discs, it did not respond when I opened it. If one of those multiple discs was not the normal general release disc, I was able to run the game. If the game and the additional discs were .chd files, they would not run unless it was a single disc. But if those same multiple disks were inside a .7z it did run (even though the configuration still pointed to the .chd). But if the configuration was to .bin files, it worked directly without doing anything...  The .chd files inside .7z are responsive and work, except that they are not recognized by the M3U file. So in the end I use .chd for single disc games and .bin/.cue for multidisc.

 

So in the end I rolled back installed versions, changed some cores, reassigned emulator, put new dependency files and regenerated the multiple disks with different extensions. In some step of all the changes, it has worked.

 

Thanks for the help.
If anyone ever has a similar problem, with all these steps it has worked again.

[midas]

I posted about this same thing yesterday, but it isn't nearly as widespread for me as what you experienced. For me it's a game here or there. For example, out of 15 Dreamcast games I tried to launch only Marvel vs. Capcom 2 had the issue. Like you, it worked fine in 13.14, but not at all in later versions.

I don't know how many games are affected on my system; so far Marvel vs Capcom 2 is the only one I've seen.