LaunchBox 13.20 - Beta Thread

[faeran]

Hi everyone,

Another beta round is upon us. This would be a shorter round the usual, as we are hoping to address some of the major issues that we have with 13.19 that have cropped up.

 

Thanks to all who help test these beta versions. Don't forget to include the following information in your feedback to help us out with tracking down with any issues you may face with these betas:

• Your Windows version
• Description of the issue
• Can it be reliably reproduced on your end?
• Reproduction steps

 

You can opt into the beta within LaunchBox by going to Tools > Options > General > Updates and turning on Update to Beta Releases. If a beta release is available, you will get prompted each time the app opens up, or you can manually check using Menu > Help > Check for Updates.

 

Beta Changelog

Beta 1:

• New Feature: Added a new Teknoparrot emulator profile to assist users with setup
• Improvement: Achievements scan option now supports RVZ files for Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo Wii using the Dolphin emulator
• Fixed: The "Attempt to hide console window" emulator option caused flickering, windowed mode, or prevented emulators from launching
• Fixed: Bug that prevented the Big Box options menu from functioning when the Sounds folder was missing
• Fixed: Crash related to the Game Save backup, restore, and delete options
• Fixed: Rare visual errors where Arrange By headers were missing when using custom badges from a plugin
• Fixed: Badge menu visual issue where parent categories didn't display a checkmark when all child elements were enabled
• Fixed: .scummvm files can now be imported into the ScummVM platform using the Single Platform and Drag/Drop import wizards

Beta 2:

• Big Box Game Details menu view not fully initializing

 

Known Issues

Known Issues in Beta 1:

• We have been heavily testing the reported issue with Big Box freezing in certain scenarios. We are unable to reliably reproduce it. If you are one user that is facing this issue the following information would be extremely useful:
  • Theme it is freezing on
  • View it is freezing on
  • Which section of Big Box you are in (eg. All Games, Platforms, Platform Categories... etc)
  • Which plugins you have installed
  • What you were doing when Big Box froze (eg. was it in Attract Mode, did you return after a while and press a navigation button and then it froze)
  • Which game did it freeze on?
  • Whether you have 3D Models turned on or off
  • List of transitions used
  • Do you have background music playing
  • Do you have game music playing
  • Do you use videos and source of the videos (eg. Steam videos, EmuMovies videos... etc)
  • Screenshot of the freeze could be helpful
• Big Box Game Details menu view not fully initializing - Addressed in beta 2

 

 

[TheNewClassics]

I've got no options showing up in the Game Details screen in Big Box, just a blank list. Critical Zone default is my theme. 

[Rlad]

43 minutes ago, TheNewClassics said:

I've got no options showing up in the Game Details screen in Big Box, just a blank list. Critical Zone default is my theme. 

Same on Vision and my own themes just completley blank.

[kmoney]

Can confirm the issue that @TheNewClassics and @Rlad is having up above with every theme I have tried with no options showing up in the game details screen.

[faeran]

Just now, kmoney said:

Can confirm the issue that @TheNewClassics and @Rlad is having up above with every theme I have tried with no options showing up in the game details screen.

5 minutes ago, Rlad said:

Same on Vision and my own themes just completley blank.

Just now, kmoney said:

Can confirm the issue that @TheNewClassics and @Rlad is having up above with every theme I have tried with no options showing up in the game details screen.

Thanks guys. Easy enough to replicate. Looks like the view itself is not fully initializing.

I'll add it to the known issues and we'll have it fixed up before release.

[Retrofrogg]

Seem to be getting some slowdowns in this latest beta. Hangs for up to 10 seconds sometimes when switching between platforms. Sometimes it hangs for longer. Didn't happen in the previous version.

Edit: A restart of LB seems to have fixed it, for now. I'll keep an eye on it.

Edited Thursday at 10:52 PM by Retrofrogg

[Fursphere]

New TeknoParrot emulator profile looks good.  

[stensgaard]

not sure if bug or feature ... but I have BigBox auto starting, and when a new beta comes out, a popup ask me if I want to install it... IF I choose NO, it will not, BUT if I change to Launchbox after saying NO in BigBox it will launch the installer without asking a second time!
again this could be intended behaviour, but I don't like having it auto installing after answering NO!

[Retrofrogg]

Yeah, Launchbox is still hanging. Just now it became unresonsive for about 40 seconds before working again.

[Retrogamer4423]

Wii is truly hard to set a keymap. Please add preset for Wii game configs because Wii's controller scheme changes by the game itself. Also, teknoparrot's controller configuration is problematic and needs to add preset for games.

[Kefka2b]

Exciting updates just keep on coming !

[C-Beats]

2 hours ago, stensgaard said:

not sure if bug or feature ... but I have BigBox auto starting, and when a new beta comes out, a popup ask me if I want to install it... IF I choose NO, it will not, BUT if I change to Launchbox after saying NO in BigBox it will launch the installer without asking a second time!
again this could be intended behaviour, but I don't like having it auto installing after answering NO!

That prompt is just asking if you want to close BB and run the installer you already told us to download via the settings. If you don't want it doing that in Tools > Options > Updates within LaunchBox shut off the update auto-download.

[faeran]

Beta 2 is out to address the issue with the Game Details menu not fully initializing.
 

[Fursphere]

3 hours ago, C-Beats said:

That prompt is just asking if you want to close BB and run the installer you already told us to download via the settings. If you don't want it doing that in Tools > Options > Updates within LaunchBox shut off the update auto-download.

So for the sake of discussion and clarity, I recommend the verbiage be updated to be more clear (in both launchbox and bigbox).   I know this is a little silly, but its confusing as it stands.  

Launchbox - "Automatically download updates in the background"   "Updates will be automatically installed when ready"

BigBox - "Would you like to install this option right now?  (Choosing no will install the update the next time bigbox or launchbox is started)

The way its coded, you cannot opt-out of an update once its downloaded.  That needs to be clear to the user.   Like hey, I'm right in the middle of configuration something, can I not update this second please? 

 

[stensgaard]

thanks @C-Beats that makes sense

@Fursphere agree

 

[Vader]

Hello everyone

Since version 13.19, for whatever reason, my mame plug-in will not update. It is stuck in version 0.257, while the current version of mame is 0.274. I have tried fixing the plug in but it still won't update. Please help

Thanks

[christhed]

Not sure if it's directly related to the update but I switched some Gamecube ISO to RVZ and rescanned for achievements. During the scanning process I got these errors.

They popped up about 3 times each during the process (300 games scanned). The scan seems to have worked.

[ToniBC]

There is a bug or strange behavior that keeps happening related to Retroarch.

When you add a game, a system or try to run a game with the cores mednafen_saturn, fmsx, hatari and maybe some others, the system waits a while for a response before launching the game or moving on to the next window when adding.That is, when we add one or more games, if we select Retroarch as an emulator, if it is for the Saturn, MSX or Atari ST platform, it stays as if checking something before moving on to the next option, even if the option to check whether the core is there or not is deactivated.

This also happens when launching the games, it keeps checking something and then launches them.

The same thing happens on other platforms. If we set the platform to Nec PCEngine and the emulator to Retroarch, there is no problem, but if we set PCEngine CD and Retroarch, it keeps checking something for 20/30 seconds and then advances or launches the game. Both use the same core.

If you launch it directly from Retroarch, it doesn't happen, it's just the launcher and only with those platforms. The rest of the platforms, which are launched with Retroarch and other cores work without problems, it only affects those three platforms.

It seems to be related to checking if you have the core or not, that option should be able to be disabled or there is something wrong with the core check on those platforms.

This was reported a few versions ago, but the problem still exists.

Thanks.

Edited 1 hour ago by ToniBC

[TheNewClassics]

Might just be my setup, but the 3D boxes are no longer rotating with the right joystick anymore. Default view

[ToniBC]

19 hours ago, ToniBC said:

There is a bug or strange behavior that keeps happening related to Retroarch.

When you add a game, a system or try to run a game with the cores mednafen_saturn, fmsx, hatari and maybe some others, the system waits a while for a response before launching the game or moving on to the next window when adding.That is, when we add one or more games, if we select Retroarch as an emulator, if it is for the Saturn, MSX or Atari ST platform, it stays as if checking something before moving on to the next option, even if the option to check whether the core is there or not is deactivated.

This also happens when launching the games, it keeps checking something and then launches them.

The same thing happens on other platforms. If we set the platform to Nec PCEngine and the emulator to Retroarch, there is no problem, but if we set PCEngine CD and Retroarch, it keeps checking something for 20/30 seconds and then advances or launches the game. Both use the same core.

If you launch it directly from Retroarch, it doesn't happen, it's just the launcher and only with those platforms. The rest of the platforms, which are launched with Retroarch and other cores work without problems, it only affects those three platforms.

It seems to be related to checking if you have the core or not, that option should be able to be disabled or there is something wrong with the core check on those platforms.

This was reported a few versions ago, but the problem still exists.
Thanks.

Searching I see that several report similar errors, apparently it is the checking of the cores or the bios that causes problems. At the moment, an option to disable the checks could be put in place or add that to the same option that it already has of not checking if there are new versions of the emulators.

That is, if we select not to check if there are new versions of Retroarch, nothing of said emulator will be checked, neither the bios nor the cores if they are missing.