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Posted
7 hours ago, AngryScotsman said:

Be gone child I speak on behave of all those that spent good money for a product that should function properly what you doing? making excuses for those paid to d a job!

Your the Child the way you are acting. As I said, the Devs work hard here and sorry they cannot please everybody all the time.

If your not happy with the Programe, use something else, Like very Buggy Hypserspin 2.0, that would give you something to moan about.

 

Posted
7 hours ago, Fursphere said:

SSD (even a cheap Sandisk SSD) will make a world of difference in BB performance and responsiveness.

I really hope this thread can get back to beta testing and the bitching can be put into a different thread. I do hope LB/BB continues to run good on mechanical HDD's and thumb drives. Portable was a big part of the LB growth and I sure couldn't afford doing an 18TB ssd. O.o  

  • Like 1
Posted

OK. Back on topic please. Moving forward I will be deleting non-beta related posts to clean this thread up. If anyone has an issue with that you can PM me directly. Otherwise, it's back to providing testing data so the devs can work on software issues users find. 

In the future if you have a person gripe feel free to click on the "Monkeys" subforum and have at it to your hearts content. 

  • Like 7
Posted

Can someone please summarize what the plan going forward is VLC/Media Player/K-Lite Codec pack, etc.? I always completely uninstall Media Player (not just disable) and I don't want K-Lite Codec Pack anywhere near my PC, so Launchbox deciding to require it is a pretty big deal to me.

Please allow any changes to the installer to be selected/disabled by the user, so we don't have Launchbox making unwanted changes to our PCs.

Posted
25 minutes ago, dukdukgoos said:

Can someone please summarize what the plan going forward is VLC/Media Player/K-Lite Codec pack, etc.? I always completely uninstall Media Player (not just disable) and I don't want K-Lite Codec Pack anywhere near my PC, so Launchbox deciding to require it is a pretty big deal to me.

Please allow any changes to the installer to be selected/disabled by the user, so we don't have Launchbox making unwanted changes to our PCs.

Would love to hear what is causing you to take the action to scrub WMP from your computer.

But right now the plan is to use WPF's default media element which utilizes WMP behind the scenes, as through extensive testing we've realized it's the most stable option at the moment. K-lite will be an optional pack that we highly recommend if a user finds themselves in a situation where certain videos are not playing back properly due to unsupported codecs. The new installer will provide a choice to users to install k-lite codec pack, which we highly recommend to do so users don't have to think about whether they'll have a video playback problem in the future.

Posted

Beta 2 is out with the following changes:

  • New Feature: The Big Box Default theme now dynamically displays Controller Input graphics based on the currently selected media pack
  • Improvement: MAME Gambling games are now marked as Casino games allowing you to easily filter them out during imports
  • Improvement: Star Rating functionality has been updated so that each star rating grouping uses the raw value instead of massaged values. For example 3.8 star games now appear in the 3 star grouping instead of 4 star as they did previously
  • Improvement: The Star Rating Arrange By functionality now sorts games by star rating within each grouping
  • Improvement: Enhanced installer/updater to install K-Lite Codec Pack Basic, streamline runtime and DirectX checks, and enable Windows Media Player only when needed
  • Fixed: Several improvements regarding file paths when launching from or pointing to a network location
  • Fixed: Several stability improvements for Big Box to stop the application from freezing after running for extended periods
  • Fixed: Bezels for vertical MAME games being applied with a horizontal layout file

 

The main things to make sure, for people willing to test, is that Big Box is running fine after the update for you, video playback is working, and navigating around Big Box poses no issues.

For users that like to have Attract Mode going for days at a time, this would be a good time to make sure beta 2 is running well for you guys.

For users that were in a position where you were running LaunchBox directly off of a network drive location, we'll love to hear feedback from you as well as to how this version handles for you.

We've spent some time on any remaining "out of memory" issues that some users have seen, but have been unable to reproduce this on any of our machines after our initial fix. We'll keep working on it when we can but without actually being able to see it happen makes it hard to try and find a fix for it. If this is happening to your, turn on logging under Tools > Options > General > Debugging, then when it happens look under the folder LaunchBox\Logs, and either post them here, or send me a PM if you are uncomfortable with posting them here.

  • Like 6
Posted (edited)
Quote

New Feature: The Big Box Default theme now dynamically displays Controller Input graphics based on the currently selected media pack



Really curious about this one.    Firing up my cabinets to update them...

For for the network file paths?   Is that based on \\UNC\ pathing basically?

Edited by Fursphere
Posted
33 minutes ago, faeran said:

Beta 2 is out with the following changes:

  • New Feature: The Big Box Default theme now dynamically displays Controller Input graphics based on the currently selected media pack

 

Can you give me an idea of what I should be seeing here?   Did the update, running default theme on both of my cabinets, and I'm not seeing any difference. 

Posted
Just now, Fursphere said:

Can you give me an idea of what I should be seeing here?   Did the update, running default theme on both of my cabinets, and I'm not seeing any difference. 

It's the images on the bottom right side of the default theme. They will now adhere to whatever pack a user chooses.

It goes hand-in-hand with the media pack feature that was introduced in beta 1.

Under Tools > Manage > LaunchBox Themes & Media, there's some different packs in there that you can download and apply to Big Box themes that utilize the dynamic controller graphics code.

Once the packs are downloaded, you could also set which pack you want to use inside of Big Box under Options > Images > Controller Input Image Type

Posted
19 minutes ago, Fursphere said:



Really curious about this one.    Firing up my cabinets to update them...

For for the network file paths?   Is that based on \\UNC\ pathing basically?

It's specific to if you run LaunchBox from a network drive. It was a number of different issues, but the main one that the user could control had to do if you are on Computer A, running LaunchBox from Computer/NAS B. If you were to try and import games from a mapped network drive that's mapped on Computer A, the file path was showing in a way that wouldn't work. We believe this was due to a security change in .NET 9 to how it handles UNC paths. This specific issue wouldn't have been a problem if you don't map network drives and instead just use the straight UNC path.

  • Like 1
Posted
Just now, Fursphere said:

Interesting.   So its this...  the A / B buttons.   Which is odd because I don't use game pads on that cabinet.  I don't even have any registered to it. 

image.thumb.png.7908d2318219954e90461e183a8bd016.png

The way it works has nothing to do to whether a user uses a specific piece of hardware, but has to do with what your settings are under your controller mappings section of Big Box. For example, looks like you have Button 1 mapped to Select, and you have the Xbox controller input graphics pack (which is the default) selected, and Button 1 on an Xbox controller is the A button, so it shows you the A button image from the pack.

Let's say you are using an arcade cabinet, and your arcade cabinet buttons are named, you can create your own pack that look like your buttons, then when you select it in LaunchBox/Big Box, they would automatically show you the correct buttons in the default theme there, which dynamically change based on your Big Box controller mappings.

Posted
58 minutes ago, faeran said:
  • Improvement: Star Rating functionality has been updated so that each star rating grouping uses the raw value instead of massaged values. For example 3.8 star games now appear in the 3 star grouping instead of 4 star as they did previously
  • Improvement: The Star Rating Arrange By functionality now sorts games by star rating within each grouping

That's a nice improvement.  I was just looking at this a couple days ago and thinking it didn't make much sense as it was... so thanks for fixing that.

  • Like 1
Posted

Installed beta 2. The screen prompting me to install the k-lite pack appeared, but selecting either the option to install or skip gave and error saying that the operation failed. I had to crash launchbox via the task manager to get the window to go away. Now launchbox won't play any video. The thumbnail appears in the media, but when I hit play it just shows a black box. The option that used to be there to choose between vlc and windows media player is no longer in the options.

 

Here is the debug output when I attempt to select a game and play its video:

 

Spoiler

2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM DataManager.SaveInternal started.
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM Saving InputBindings.xml...
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Start
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before JoystickTimer Enabled Set
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before Resume Video
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before Check Already Focused
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM Saving GameControllers.xml...
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM Saving ListCache.xml...
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM Saving Settings.xml...
2025-04-11 06:41:26 PM Saving BigBoxSettings.xml...
2025-04-11 06:41:27 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:27 PM Saving ImportBlacklist.xml...
2025-04-11 06:41:27 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:27 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:27 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:27 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:27 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:27 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:27 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:27 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:27 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:27 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:27 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:27 PM Saving F:\LaunchBox\Data\Platforms\Sony Playstation 2.xml...
2025-04-11 06:41:28 PM DataManager.SaveInternal completed successfully.
2025-04-11 06:41:29 PM Music.Pause Start
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Null object cannot be converted to a value type.
   at System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider)
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Begin...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Invoking on UI thread...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Disposing VLC player...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Retrieving WMP instance...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Removing WMP MediaEnded event handler...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Removing WMP Loaded event handler....
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Stopping WMP video...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Clearing WMP source binding...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Clearing WMP visibility binding...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Setting WMP source to null...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Removing WMP control from grid...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Nulling out WMP instance...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Suppressing GC finalization...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Processing garbage collection....
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Completed.
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Begin...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Invoking on UI thread...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Disposing VLC player...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Retrieving WMP instance...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Removing WMP MediaEnded event handler...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Removing WMP Loaded event handler....
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Stopping WMP video...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Clearing WMP source binding...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Clearing WMP visibility binding...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Setting WMP source to null...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Removing WMP control from grid...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Nulling out WMP instance...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Suppressing GC finalization...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Processing garbage collection....
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Completed.
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Begin...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Invoking on UI thread...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Disposing VLC player...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Retrieving WMP instance...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Removing WMP MediaEnded event handler...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Removing WMP Loaded event handler....
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Stopping WMP video...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Clearing WMP source binding...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Clearing WMP visibility binding...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Setting WMP source to null...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Removing WMP control from grid...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Nulling out WMP instance...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Suppressing GC finalization...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Processing garbage collection....
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Controls.VideoControl.Dispose: Completed.
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM GameDetailsViewModel AttachView LoadVideoMusic Start
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM GameDetailsViewModel LoadVideoMusic MusicNotPlaying Start
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Music.Prepare Start
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM GameDetailsViewModel LoadVideoMusic MusicNotPlaying Complete
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM GameDetailsViewModel AttachView LoadVideoMusic Completed
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Music.Kill Start
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Music.Kill Finished
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Music.NotifyTrackList Start
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM GameDetailsViewModel returning to pool...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM GameDetailsViewModel return to pool: Video control dispose...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM GameDetailsViewModel return to pool: Video control nulling...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM GameDetailsViewModel return to pool: Invoking UI thread...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM GameDetailsViewModel.Dispose: Nulling out all image sources...
2025-04-11 06:41:35 PM GameDetailsViewModel successfully returned to pool
2025-04-11 06:41:36 PM Music.Pause Start
2025-04-11 06:41:42 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Start
2025-04-11 06:41:42 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Before Pause Video
2025-04-11 06:41:42 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Completed

 

Posted
8 hours ago, faeran said:

The way it works has nothing to do to whether a user uses a specific piece of hardware, but has to do with what your settings are under your controller mappings section of Big Box. For example, looks like you have Button 1 mapped to Select, and you have the Xbox controller input graphics pack (which is the default) selected, and Button 1 on an Xbox controller is the A button, so it shows you the A button image from the pack.

Let's say you are using an arcade cabinet, and your arcade cabinet buttons are named, you can create your own pack that look like your buttons, then when you select it in LaunchBox/Big Box, they would automatically show you the correct buttons in the default theme there, which dynamically change based on your Big Box controller mappings.

Playing with this a little more.

So, if I have controllers disabled should it still show buttons?   Or should it be blank at that point, because there is not mapping?

Are you going to implement something like this for keyboard mapping, that can be used for arcade cabinet controls?    I was looking at your controller theme, and saw the joystick png images - but no idea where you'd actually have them show up in the interface?   (reminded me of the old hyperspin look)

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