LaunchBox 13.19 - Beta Thread

[launchretrogirl2562]

The move to use SQLite indeed shows a lot of performance improvements. 👍👍👍

Is it not an idea to in a following build to also use SQL for the user/data files?

And a setting/option in LB to use/not use SQL for user/data files.

If a user chooses to use SQL...then in early stage...it always reads from the SQL database but still writes to both XML and Database.
(in later stage) If a user chooses to only use SQL....it only reads and writes to the SQL database.
If a user chooses to use only use XML...it will read and write only from/to the xml files (default setting)

That way you can implement a grace period and slowly start making xml obsolete and have an only SQL implementation for LB/BB

 

Edited February 6 by launchretrogirl2562

[MrDeKat]

I know very little about xml and sql databases, but enough to know that making that change must have been a huge job. I just wanted to leave this message to thank all the team for that great work. 🙌

Edited February 6 by MrDeKat

[izzishor]

Sweet baby Jesus, it runs so smooth for me ❤️❤️❤️ Amazing work, a very much needed but a MONUMENTAL effort 🙌🙌🙌 Thank you so much for all the great work.

Edited February 6 by izzishor

[kmoney]

I tested out the new beta with the VLC updates with the default theme but unfortunately BigBox is still freezing/locking up while in attract mode with VLC but not WMP. Not sure if the other testers are having the same results or not but just wanted to report in.

[Kevin_Flynn]

Launched from a network path.

Didn't get in 13.18. In beta 3, I couldn't even launch LaunchBox. In beta 4, I can navigate but get while in BigBox and navigating/exiting.

 

Invalid URI: The hostname could not be parsed.

App:     Big Box
Version: 13.19-beta-4
Theme:   Pulse
Type:    System.UriFormatException
Site:    Void CreateThis(System.String, Boolean, System.UriKind, System.UriCreationOptions ByRef)
Source:  System.Private.Uri

   at System.Uri.CreateThis(String uri, Boolean dontEscape, UriKind uriKind, UriCreationOptions& creationOptions)
   at System.Uri..ctor(String uriString)
   at System.Windows.Media.MediaPlayerState.OpenMedia(Uri source)
   at System.Windows.Media.MediaPlayerState.SetSource(Uri source)
   at System.Windows.Media.MediaPlayerState.Open(Uri source)
   at System.Windows.Controls.AVElementHelper.HandleStateChange()
   at COMMUNITY_Controls.UCVideo.Media_Loaded(Object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.EventRoute.InvokeHandlersImpl(Object source, RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean reRaised)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseEventImpl(DependencyObject sender, RoutedEventArgs args)
   at System.Windows.BroadcastEventHelper.BroadcastEvent(DependencyObject root, RoutedEvent routedEvent)
   at System.Windows.BroadcastEventHelper.BroadcastLoadedEvent(Object root)
   at System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.FireInvokeOnRenderCallbacks()
   at System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.RenderMessageHandlerCore(Object resizedCompositionTarget)
   at System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.AnimatedRenderMessageHandler(Object resizedCompositionTarget)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler)

Recent Log:

   10:12:16 PM Exception

Edited Friday at 03:15 AM by Kevin_Flynn

[C-Beats]

11 hours ago, Kevin_Flynn said:

Launched from a network path.

Didn't get in 13.18. In beta 3, I couldn't even launch LaunchBox. In beta 4, I can navigate but get while in BigBox and navigating/exiting.

 

Invalid URI: The hostname could not be parsed.

App:     Big Box
Version: 13.19-beta-4
Theme:   Pulse
Type:    System.UriFormatException
Site:    Void CreateThis(System.String, Boolean, System.UriKind, System.UriCreationOptions ByRef)
Source:  System.Private.Uri

   at System.Uri.CreateThis(String uri, Boolean dontEscape, UriKind uriKind, UriCreationOptions& creationOptions)
   at System.Uri..ctor(String uriString)
   at System.Windows.Media.MediaPlayerState.OpenMedia(Uri source)
   at System.Windows.Media.MediaPlayerState.SetSource(Uri source)
   at System.Windows.Media.MediaPlayerState.Open(Uri source)
   at System.Windows.Controls.AVElementHelper.HandleStateChange()
   at COMMUNITY_Controls.UCVideo.Media_Loaded(Object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.EventRoute.InvokeHandlersImpl(Object source, RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean reRaised)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseEventImpl(DependencyObject sender, RoutedEventArgs args)
   at System.Windows.BroadcastEventHelper.BroadcastEvent(DependencyObject root, RoutedEvent routedEvent)
   at System.Windows.BroadcastEventHelper.BroadcastLoadedEvent(Object root)
   at System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.FireInvokeOnRenderCallbacks()
   at System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.RenderMessageHandlerCore(Object resizedCompositionTarget)
   at System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.AnimatedRenderMessageHandler(Object resizedCompositionTarget)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler)

Recent Log:

   10:12:16 PM Exception

This error is being thrown by code that isn't ours. You'd need to reach out to the plugin dev and have them correct the plugin they use to display videos.

[GuiCogo]

After performing a RetroAchievements rescan of NES, SNES and Genesis, the achievements vanished. I checked the xml of the affected platforms and the hashes are fine. This happened in the beta 4, I reinstalled beta 3, performed another rescan and the achievements reappeared.

[p bizzy]

Darn, was hoping the UNC paths fix indirectly nudged the relative paths issue I'm still having. Does no one else really use relative paths and seeing the games/emulators as now unavailable after the beta update?

I was able to re-produce on a fresh out of the box Legion Go and add 1 game. By the way using 'add folder' when importing new roms uses relative paths by default.

[50chan]

I reformatted my windows 11 pc, Launchbox/big box are on an internal ssd D Drive: before the reformat with latest beta update it booted within seconds, after i reformatted its back to being sluggish, do i have to reinstall the new beta update? all my launchbox files are on my D drive.

[Fursphere]

Beta  4

Imported some NES games to my launchbox install this morning, and not a single one was matched against the metadata database.   (Duck Hunt wasn't matched for example).  If I manually assigned it (edit - metadata) to a LB ID, the media downloaded fine.   But the import process / matching system doesn't appear to be working at all.

I'm going to try a few more platforms (importing Lightgun Games to my cabinet) and see what happens.

[Fursphere]

34 minutes ago, Fursphere said:

Beta  4

Imported some NES games to my launchbox install this morning, and not a single one was matched against the metadata database.   (Duck Hunt wasn't matched for example).  If I manually assigned it (edit - metadata) to a LB ID, the media downloaded fine.   But the import process / matching system doesn't appear to be working at all.

I'm going to try a few more platforms (importing Lightgun Games to my cabinet) and see what happens.

More to this.

Importing "Nintendo Entertainment System" had no issues.   All the roms linked up to a LB DB ID #. 

Importing "NES Lightgun" (scrape as "Nintendo Entertainment System" failed to match a single rom.    Same for "PS2 Lightgun" "PSX Lightgun" etc...    Any non-standard platform name - even with the correct "scrape as" system listed - fails to match a single rom.    I'm fairly certain this used to work in previous versions? 

[zenanomaly]

On 2/7/2025 at 4:50 PM, GuiCogo said:

After performing a RetroAchievements rescan of NES, SNES and Genesis, the achievements vanished. I checked the xml of the affected platforms and the hashes are fine. This happened in the beta 4, I reinstalled beta 3, performed another rescan and the achievements reappeared.

Similar issue here, only it's PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 and PC Engine CD/TurboGrafx-CD (at least that I've noticed) missing again. Same systems were reported  a few months ago and fixed, tried a forced database update and they're still not hashing.

[Rlad]

Added some games to already imported platform PSP on my test build and they auto-imported, added GBA games (not imported platform) and they were not recognized, rolled back to Beta 3 and the GBA games platform was created and roms imported as intended.

[Fursphere]

Beta-4 

Switched back to VLC.  BigBox freezing / lockups is significantly WORSE than its ever been.   Switched back again to WMP - no issues yet. 

[C-Beats]

@Fursphere @Rlad I was able to use your reports to identify an issue when import/scraping games with a scrape as value set and is resolved internally. Nice catch!

[faeran]

On 2/6/2025 at 7:16 PM, kmoney said:

I tested out the new beta with the VLC updates with the default theme but unfortunately BigBox is still freezing/locking up while in attract mode with VLC but not WMP. Not sure if the other testers are having the same results or not but just wanted to report in.

On 2/9/2025 at 7:18 PM, Fursphere said:

Beta-4 

Switched back to VLC.  BigBox freezing / lockups is significantly WORSE than its ever been.   Switched back again to WMP - no issues yet. 

That's too bad. At least internally I ran it for about 2-3 straight days using VLC without any issues, so maybe it's reduced to more of a hardware related issue. At least we all have WMP that seems fixed for the first time ever, so we'll take that win.

On 2/6/2025 at 1:37 PM, launchretrogirl2562 said:

The move to use SQLite indeed shows a lot of performance improvements. 👍👍👍

Is it not an idea to in a following build to also use SQL for the user/data files?

And a setting/option in LB to use/not use SQL for user/data files.

If a user chooses to use SQL...then in early stage...it always reads from the SQL database but still writes to both XML and Database.
(in later stage) If a user chooses to only use SQL....it only reads and writes to the SQL database.
If a user chooses to use only use XML...it will read and write only from/to the xml files (default setting)

That way you can implement a grace period and slowly start making xml obsolete and have an only SQL implementation for LB/BB

 

Internally we've thought about it, and we may as well do it in the future, but there's going to be some trade offs, and we'll have to weigh that to what the actual pros would be if we did this. If we do this and we find there's very little, if no actual real life user gains, it may just not be the smartest choice. We'll be weighing those choices internally.

On 2/7/2025 at 4:50 PM, GuiCogo said:

After performing a RetroAchievements rescan of NES, SNES and Genesis, the achievements vanished. I checked the xml of the affected platforms and the hashes are fine. This happened in the beta 4, I reinstalled beta 3, performed another rescan and the achievements reappeared.

On 2/8/2025 at 9:54 PM, zenanomaly said:

Similar issue here, only it's PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 and PC Engine CD/TurboGrafx-CD (at least that I've noticed) missing again. Same systems were reported  a few months ago and fixed, tried a forced database update and they're still not hashing.

We've ran some extensive testing, but just simply cannot get achievements to not scan properly across multiple accounts, so this might be something on your end. Try and remove your RetroAchievement credentials within the options menu. Restart LaunchBox and then add them back in. Not sure if that will help, but you never know.

On 2/9/2025 at 12:38 PM, Rlad said:

Added some games to already imported platform PSP on my test build and they auto-imported, added GBA games (not imported platform) and they were not recognized, rolled back to Beta 3 and the GBA games platform was created and roms imported as intended.

Also ran some extensive tests but games always did end up importing eventually. I did see that sometimes games were importing slower than previously, although other times where it was almost instant. It's possible it depends on what LB is currently doing behind the scenes at the moment you add the games into the folders, but we'll see what we can do to speed that up, and depending on our findings will depend on when that will make an appearance.

On 2/7/2025 at 5:36 PM, p bizzy said:

Darn, was hoping the UNC paths fix indirectly nudged the relative paths issue I'm still having. Does no one else really use relative paths and seeing the games/emulators as now unavailable after the beta update?

I was able to re-produce on a fresh out of the box Legion Go and add 1 game. By the way using 'add folder' when importing new roms uses relative paths by default.

One thing to note is that relative pathing is baked into the app itself for everything, including all media and the like, so most likely what your issue is is not related to relative pathing directly.

I did some extensive testing to see if I could reproduce what you are seeing. I set up a new version of LaunchBox, created relative paths to both ROMs and Emulators, but they launched just fine. I then set up a network drive version of LaunchBox, set up network UNC paths that were relative to both ROMs and Emulators, but everything worked as intended.

On 2/8/2025 at 12:21 AM, 50chan said:

I reformatted my windows 11 pc, Launchbox/big box are on an internal ssd D Drive: before the reformat with latest beta update it booted within seconds, after i reformatted its back to being sluggish, do i have to reinstall the new beta update? all my launchbox files are on my D drive.

The only difference in Beta 4 is that you no longer have to load up the local database file into memory during startup. If you want that benefit right now, then you'll have to be on Beta 4, or you can wait for the release cycle to complete.

[MrDeKat]

51 minutes ago, faeran said:

We've ran some extensive testing, but just simply cannot get achievements to not scan properly across multiple accounts, so this might be something on your end. Try and remove your RetroAchievement credentials within the options menu. Restart LaunchBox and then add them back in. Not sure if that will help, but you never know.

I have the same problem that other users comment: NES and SNES games don't detect Retroarchievement achievements and database metadata. For these platforms, I have the name changed to "Nintendo NES" and "Nintendo SNES".

When I add the same games again but keeping the original name of the platforms ("Nintendo Entertainment System" and "Super Nintendo Entertainment System"), it detects the achievements and metadata correctly.

Edited Tuesday at 06:07 PM by MrDeKat

[faeran]

28 minutes ago, MrDeKat said:

I have the same problem that other users comment: NES and SNES games don't detect Retroarchievement achievements and database metadata. For these platforms, I have the name changed to "Nintendo NES" and "Nintendo SNES".

When I add the same games again but keeping the original name of the platforms ("Nintendo Entertainment System" and "Super Nintendo Entertainment System"), it detects the achievements and metadata correctly.

That could do it, if that's the case for everyone, that should be fixed internally already.

[Fursphere]

Yesterday I imported "Sammy Atomiswave" "Sega Naomi" and "Sega Naomi 2" platforms.    These did not have a 'scrape as' setting, they were just 'native' (?) lunchbox platforms. 

Not a single rom was matched in the imports.   I know C-Beats said he found an issue with 'scrape as' and this process, but these three weren't setup that way, and still had the issue.

I put on a movie and went through and manually fixed them all.  But something is broken there in Beta 4.

[The Papaw]

I just wanted to pass this along concerning VLC . . I have noticed that the colors are not matching correctly in BB when I use VLC. For example, if I create a background color and use it in a theme and use the same hex code I am using in Photoshop, it looks correct if I use WMP in the BB theme. If I use VLC, the colors do not match. This has been happening in the previous and current versions of VLC used in LB/BB

The surrounding color of the video snap in top right corner are supposed to be the same like in the 2nd SS

Using current VLC

 

Using WMP

Edited 13 hours ago by The Papaw