Was hoping 13.19 would address an issue, but it still persists (not launching some games)

[midas]

I'd previously posted an issue about launching some titles that has apparently occured since 13.15.

 

 

There are several titles that I'd run across, but the only one I remember (and can readily reproduce) is Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for Dreamcast.

I just updated to 13.19 to see if the game would launch, but I still have the same issue.

- Launching the game from LaunchBox/BigBox fails (retroarch.exe shows up in Task Manager, then closes with nothing ever showing up on screen).
- Launching RetroArch by itself, loading the Flycast core, then loading the game works fine.
- I also tried a fresh install of 13.19 to a different location, imported Marvel vs. Capcom 2, let LaunchBox install RetroArch. Same problem.
- Going back to 13.14 the game works without issue.

What should I be looking at? I've seen similar posts on the forums but so far nothing to indicate what the issue could be.

[zombob]

Why not just use the Flycast emulator and not bother with Retroarch for Dreamcast? 

[sundogak]

9 hours ago, midas said:

I'd previously posted an issue about launching some titles that has apparently occured since 13.15.

 

 

There are several titles that I'd run across, but the only one I remember (and can readily reproduce) is Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for Dreamcast.

I just updated to 13.19 to see if the game would launch, but I still have the same issue.

- Launching the game from LaunchBox/BigBox fails (retroarch.exe shows up in Task Manager, then closes with nothing ever showing up on screen).
- Launching RetroArch by itself, loading the Flycast core, then loading the game works fine.
- I also tried a fresh install of 13.19 to a different location, imported Marvel vs. Capcom 2, let LaunchBox install RetroArch. Same problem.
- Going back to 13.14 the game works without issue.

What should I be looking at? I've seen similar posts on the forums but so far nothing to indicate what the issue could be.

Not really sure what would be to impact one game for version change.  I have 13.19, RA flycast and Marvel vs Capcom 2 in CHD format and launches with no issue.  These are my settings for RA.  I did see some folks with issues if hide console box checked (for other emulators not RA).  But I have on and launches.  Did you try removing the game and readding it? 

[midas]

4 hours ago, zombob said:

Why not just use the Flycast emulator and not bother with Retroarch for Dreamcast? 

The problem was with multiple games in multiple systems; MvC2 is just the one I remember the most and what I was using for testing.

 

35 minutes ago, sundogak said:

Not really sure what would be to impact one game for version change.  I have 13.19, RA flycast and Marvel vs Capcom 2 in CHD format and launches with no issue.  These are my settings for RA.  I did see some folks with issues if hide console box checked (for other emulators not RA).  But I have on and launches.  Did you try removing the game and readding it? 

These are the same settings I have. I did try unchecking the "hide console" box but no dice.

It's strange, as I can reproduce every time with every version of LaunchBox from 13.15. Just a fresh install, install RetroArch, import that one game, and it won't launch. I do same steps using 13.14 and it loads without issue.

[sundogak]

47 minutes ago, midas said:

The problem was with multiple games in multiple systems; MvC2 is just the one I remember the most and what I was using for testing.

 

These are the same settings I have. I did try unchecking the "hide console" box but no dice.

It's strange, as I can reproduce every time with every version of LaunchBox from 13.15. Just a fresh install, install RetroArch, import that one game, and it won't launch. I do same steps using 13.14 and it loads without issue.

Backup your LB data xmls (File Management, Create Backup) and then try removing all plugins, remove all Dreamcast games and associated platform (not all of RA just flycast).  Then try adding back platform and few games to see if runs.  Only thing I can think of is XML is corrupted somewhere (also make sure no Data\Platforms directory has not dupes, zips or other files beyond your platform XMLs).  Beyond that a LB person would need to weigh in as out of ideas on this one.

[midas]

1 hour ago, sundogak said:

Backup your LB data xmls (File Management, Create Backup) and then try removing all plugins, remove all Dreamcast games and associated platform (not all of RA just flycast).  Then try adding back platform and few games to see if runs.  Only thing I can think of is XML is corrupted somewhere (also make sure no Data\Platforms directory has not dupes, zips or other files beyond your platform XMLs).  Beyond that a LB person would need to weigh in as out of ideas on this one.

I can give that a shot, however I have this issue on a fresh install of LaunchBox in a different location (or on a different machine). No plugins installed and only this one game added, albeit it loads fine if I launch RetroArch itself and load it.

Edited February 16 by midas

[midas]

I can report that the same thing happened after trying the above steps.

I'm not sure what I could/would be doing wrong. I can easily reproduce it by just installing 13.19 (or any version since 13.15) and doing nothing but importing the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 CHD for Dreamcast. I've tried letting LaunchBox install RA and I've also downloaded it separately and told LaunchBox to use that install, but it just will not launch from LaunchBox. Opening RA itself (either directly or from within LaunchBox) then loading the core/loading the content it runs fine. Because of this I'd think anyone here would be able to do the same thing and reproduce it as well. I've also sourced other copies of the game elsewhere.

I can see that LaunchBox starts RA (as I see the process appear then disappear). Is there some logging I can enable in RA to see what happened?

[midas]

So, a fresh install of 13.20 launched the game without issue. Creating a second fresh install of 13.19 in another directory does not launch the game.

I updated my 13.14 install to 13.20 and it does not launch the game. 

I updated the fresh install of 13.19 to 13.20 and it does not launch the game.

Same issue as before--I'll see retroarch.exe show up in Task Manager for about 1-2 seconds, then it disappears. Launching RetroArch manually and then loading the core -> game still works fine.

Actually, retroarch.exe will show up, then another copy, then they both disappear.

I've tried adding -v --log-file retroarch.log  to the command-line parameters of the emulator, but it must exit/crash before any logging occurs--I can only get logs with this if I launch the emulator directly (which doesn't have the problem, so there are no errors to log).

Edited March 8 by midas

[midas]

Well, I have a little more information that may be helpful, but I still don't understand the issue.

I went into retroarch.cfg and set log_verbosity to True, then did a screen recording to get what flashed on the screen on a failed load.

I've tried disabling the "Extract ROM archives before running" option but it doesn't make a difference. The same .CHD file copied to my fresh 13.20 installation loads fine.

[midas]

I think I've found the problem: Starting in Launchbox 13.15 something appears to have changed with how it passes characters in a file path to the emulator.

In all of my testing I'd either just copied the folder with the MvC2 CHD over to the new installation, or--when trying CHDs from different sources--replaced the file that was there (even changing its name but not its folder).

In my fresh 13.20 install however, I'd only placed the CHD file in the Sega Dreamcast folder rather than having it in a subfolder for the game.

In continuing testing this morning I happened to notice what appeared to be double spaces before (USA) in the folder name. I removed the extra space, updated the game's launch path, and the game launched fine.

So it looks like although Launchbox can see the extra space (it's visible when viewing the path in the launch location) it's not passing that on to Retroarch when telling it to launch the game. This is shown in the log console I posted before, where it said it couldn't read the attributes of the file--of course it couldn't, because the path it was given didn't have the extra space in the folder name.

To further test this, I went to a game I've launched a hundred times: Castlevania - Symphony of the Night on PS1.

• I launched the game successfully, then exited.
• I located the folder with the BIN/CUE and added an extra space to it.
• In Launchbox I edited the metadata, went to the Launching section and browsed to the new location of the .CUE file.
• I confirmed that the folder now showed the extra space.
  
  
   
• I saved the settings and tried to launch the game. It did not launch.
• I renamed the folder to remove the extra space, re-browsed to/selected the .CUE and saved the settings.
• I successfully launched the game.