Multi Disc Game Badge and .m3u

[W4rCh1ld]

Any way to manually tag games as "Multi Disc" for the Badge Indicator, or even better can Launchbox automatically identify .m3u as a multi disk file type and just show the badge?

[Kefka2b]

1 hour ago, W4rCh1ld said:

Any way to manually tag games as "Multi Disc" for the Badge Indicator, or even better can Launchbox automatically identify .m3u as a multi disk file type and just show the badge?

I usually add the discs in additional apps manually as I like to name them in a clean way, disc 1 , 2 etc... or give them clearer names like for Final Fantasy Chronicles, 1 disc is called Chrono Trigger and the other FFIV etc..., and that works, but yeah it would be much easier if done directly when adding an m3u.

Edited March 21 by Kefka2b

[W4rCh1ld]

6 minutes ago, Kefka2b said:

I usually add the discs in additional apps manually as I like to name them in a clean way, disc 1 , 2 etc... or give them clearer names like for Final Fantasy Chronicles, 1 disc is called Chrono Trigger and the other FFIV etc..., and that works, but yeah it would be much easier if done directly when adding an m3u.

Yeah i realise i can go back through the multi disc games i have made m3u's for and just add the discs as additional apps (and get the badge back that way, mostly as a reminder that this game is a multidisc) which means i can boot from any disc too, while the main boot remains the m3u (although doing that would make disc swapping in retroarch far less convenient anyway when needed, though save loading may be faster to go straight to the correct disc.) But its just not very elegant, as auto assigning based on the m3u file, or even just a tag box, like it has for broken, fav etc in the info page.

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, W4rCh1ld said:

Any way to manually tag games as "Multi Disc" for the Badge Indicator, or even better can Launchbox automatically identify .m3u as a multi disk file type and just show the badge?

 

I think your best (only?) option in this scenario is to create a Custom Badge.  

 

[W4rCh1ld]

20 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

 

I think your best (only?) option in this scenario is to create a Custom Badge.  

 

That sounds interesting enough to have a look at, but it feels like quite a bit of work in itself, plus being a plugin means it needs manually monitoring for updates, and if a launchbox update breaks it hoping there is a fix made (im still hoping fraginator's extractor gets a fix as that is worth the hassle for its functionality) feels like itd be easier overall, guarenteed to just continue working and has some minor benifits, just adding the discs in as additonal apps.

[JoeViking245]

22 minutes ago, W4rCh1ld said:

That sounds interesting enough to have a look at, but it feels like quite a bit of work in itself, plus being a plugin means it needs manually monitoring for updates, and if a launchbox update breaks it hoping there is a fix made (im still hoping fraginator's extractor gets a fix as that is worth the hassle for its functionality) feels like itd be easier overall, guarenteed to just continue working and has some minor benifits, just adding the discs in as additonal apps.

Quite a bit of work?  @jayjay already took care of the hard part.  With his app, my guess is 5 minutes tops.

The app to create the Custom Badges was created almost 5 years ago.  That was when LaunchBox was still on .NET Framework 4.8 (even before "upgrading" to .NET Core 3.1, .NET 6 and now .NET 9).  I, JoeViking245 promise you it still works. And the resulting Badge plugins will continue to work.

Then once when you create the resulting .dll file, you can become a hero and share it with the Community for others to revel in your hard work.

 

Plan "B":  Request a Feature.  Feedback - LaunchBox

[W4rCh1ld]

15 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

Quite a bit of work?  @jayjay already took care of the hard part.  With his app, my guess is 5 minutes tops.

The app to create the Custom Badges was created almost 5 years ago.  That was when LaunchBox was still on .NET Framework 4.8 (even before "upgrading" to .NET Core 3.1, .NET 6 and now .NET 9).  I, JoeViking245 promise you it still works. And the resulting Badge plugins will continue to work.

Then once when you create the resulting .dll file, you can become a hero and share it with the Community for others to revel in your hard work.

 

Plan "B":  Request a Feature.  Feedback - LaunchBox

Lol, well i will give it a look as it does sound interesting, and if it is as simple as associating .m3u extensions in "main loading directory" with the multi disc badge icon in the images>badge folder (im using the nean arcade version but the file name is the same just image replaced) then it may be quite quick. But i need to get home to see. All i meant is download it, add it, see how it works, make the dll, etc (and the pit falls of plugins in general) ... vs go though half a dozen games for half a dozen systems adding discs. ;) 

[JoeViking245]

32 minutes ago, W4rCh1ld said:

and the pit falls of plugins in general

I think your mind's been tainted by the unfortunate 'breaking' of Archive Cache Manager. Which has (had) a strong UI presence.  

I stand by my promise for the resulting plugin.

The IGameBadge Interface (what's makes this plugin possible via the LaunchBox API) I'm pretty sure hasn't been touched since it was 1st implemented in LaunchBox v10.11.  But mainly, the resulting plugin doesn't have any UI Framework dependencies to break in updates. 

It'll be like the Energizer Bunny. 

[W4rCh1ld]

25 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

I think your mind's been tainted by the unfortunate 'breaking' of Archive Cache Manager. Which has (had) a strong UI presence.  

I stand by my promise for the resulting plugin.

The IGameBadge Interface (what's makes this plugin possible via the LaunchBox API) I'm pretty sure hasn't been touched since it was 1st implemented in LaunchBox v10.11.  But mainly, the resulting plugin doesn't have any UI Framework dependencies to break in updates. 

It'll be like the Energizer Bunny. 

Ok you've peaked my interest now. Lol. Since its dll file creator i'll trust you as its not a "plugin" like that.

So what im going to aim to do is:

If the metadata "lauching" specifed file ends in .m3u add "m3u multidisc" badge.

The unique "m3u multidisc" badge will be in the standard images/badges folder with all the others.

And i will use the alt white neon delux multidisk badge (as there are two options in his pack) and leave the blue there too, as is, so i can see if the icon is being added by lauchbox or by my dll extension.

And if i fail to achieve this mabey @jayjay might be so kind as to make my cool badge idea as suggested in the app page. 

If i succeed i will post the dll here as proof. ;) lol

[W4rCh1ld]

So i did it and got it working, the dll simply looks at the application path, see its ends with .m3u and adds the default Launchbox multi disk icon (which i renamed m3u multidisc, as im using the neon blue disc from the neon arcade set already instead) to the list... Pictures show the settings used, which unfortunately resulted in 2 yellow warnings (shown in picture2) during the compile (NU1904) which i neither know what they are or how to fix them to make the green "perfect" compile @jayjay says to get on his Custom Badges page as ive never used this application before or "really" know what im doing at all (if he would like to explain or fix my error that would be appreciated too). The 3rd picture shows a set up games, list of badges so that the "launching" specified file ends in .m3u so adds "my" lauchbox default light blue double disk at the bottom, has its discs in the additional apps so that lauchbox has added the neon arcade blue disk 2nd down as standard for multidisc games, and each of the disks were individual stories so the same game but disc 1 and 2 are not sequential, and named to differentiate between the discs, so also showing "multiple versions" - the purple square stack 3rd down. Thanks @JoeViking245 that was an interesting solution. Ive Included the .dll too.

 

@Kefka2b you may be interested in the file? You just need a Badge image called; m3u multidisc added into the images/badges folder and the dll below in the plugins folder and turn on the plugin badges in the settings and all the .m3u files will have a badge. 

 

Badge m3u multidisc.dll

[Kefka2b]

16 minutes ago, W4rCh1ld said:

So i did it and got it working, the dll simply looks at the application path, see its ends with .m3u and adds the default Launchbox multi disk icon (which i renamed m3u multidisc, as im using the neon blue disc from the neon arcade set already instead) to the list... Pictures show the settings used, which unfortunately resulted in 2 yellow warnings (shown in picture2) during the compile (NU1904) which i neither know what they are or how to fix them to make the green "perfect" compile @jayjay says to get on his Custom Badges page as ive never used this application before or "really" know what im doing at all (if he would like to explain or fix my error that would be appreciated too). The 3rd picture shows a set up games, list of badges so that the "launching" specified file ends in .m3u so adds "my" lauchbox default light blue double disk at the bottom, has its discs in the additional apps so that lauchbox has added the neon arcade blue disk 2nd down as standard for multidisc games, and each of the disks were individual stories so the same game but disc 1 and 2 are not sequential, and named to differentiate between the discs, so also showing "multiple versions" - the purple square stack 3rd down. Thanks @JoeViking245 that was an interesting solution. Ive Included the .dll too.

 

@Kefka2b you may be interested in the file? You just need a Badge image called; m3u multidisc added into the images/badges folder and the dll below in the plugins folder and turn on the plugin badges in the settings and all the .m3u files will have a badge. 

 

Badge m3u multidisc.dll 9.5 kB · 0 downloads

Maybe I am all set with platforms that have multiple disc games though 😁

[W4rCh1ld]

1 minute ago, Kefka2b said:

Maybe I am all set with platforms that have multiple disc games though 😁

Yeah no worries, you said "but yeah it would be much easier if done directly when adding an m3u." and this does just that so i thought id give you a tag. And since ive not gone through the effort of adding all the discs back in per game already this is a nice solution.

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, W4rCh1ld said:

You just need a Badge image called; m3u multidisc added into the images/badges folder and the dll below in the plugins folder and turn on the plugin badges in the settings and all the .m3u files will have a badge. 

Actually, a person would only need the dll file.  The image is already embedded into the dll (when it was compiled).  Then LaunchBox will extract the image and place it appropriately when the dll is loaded (LB is started).

Then later, if a user wants to use a different looking badge, they can go to   View < Badges < Change Badge Images...  and open the folder where the image will go.  Add the image 'there' and renaming it to the same name as the plugin (replacing the existing image).

 

1 hour ago, W4rCh1ld said:

resulted in 2 yellow warnings

The System.Drawing.Common warnings can be ignored.  The plugin was made when that version (4.7.0) wasn't 'vulnerable'.  Besides, after being compiled, the dll actually then uses LaunchBox's 'updated' System.Drawing.Common making it a non-issue.   As you've found, the resulting plugin works.   As promised. 😎

 

1 hour ago, W4rCh1ld said:

Ive Included the .dll too.

Well done. The Community will appreciate you.