LaunchBox 13.21 - Beta Thread

[faeran]

15 minutes ago, erdybirdy53. said:

Hi all. I have just installed beta 3 and I am having some issues. The 1st one being, on some platforms i.e Sega Ringedge, where I have scraped as Arcade its not using my Sega RingEdge logo and is using the Arcade logo instead, even though I have set up a override in clear logos and have them in "J:\LaunchBox\Images\Media Packs\Overrides\Platform Clear Logos\Platforms" (see example). This is happening for several platforms where I have scaped as Arcade. The images appear correctly in Big Box but in Launchbox they are wrong for some reason. I have cleared all image cache in Big Box also.

2nd question where are the platform categories being pulled from now, previously they were "J:\LaunchBox\Images\Platform Categories", as they are now using couple of incorrect icons 

Thanks for your help as always. Cheers.

Looks like by fixing something else with Platform Clear Logo Overrides, this broke down. Should be fixed before release.

To answer your question, we are working on a searchable knowledge base. It doesn't have a lot of info on it yet, but are you able to ask it your question and see if it actually gives you the answer you were looking for? 

https://feedback.launchbox.gg/help

[erdybirdy53.]

15 minutes ago, faeran said:

Looks like by fixing something else with Platform Clear Logo Overrides, this broke down. Should be fixed before release.

To answer your question, we are working on a searchable knowledge base. It doesn't have a lot of info on it yet, but are you able to ask it your question and see if it actually gives you the answer you were looking for? 

https://feedback.launchbox.gg/help

Thanks for the reply. I will wait for the next release of Launchbox to hopefully fix the clear logo platform issues.

I have checked your link and couldn't find where the platform categories logos are now being pulled from. Thank you.

[sTo0z]

2 hours ago, Retro808 said:

I do not believe Beta 3 fixed anything on this. Faeren's post mentioned it only as a known issue and it may be fixed for release (next stable) or beta 1 of the next release.

Apologies!

I thought it had been addressed according to this post:

 

[Fursphere]

I'm not sure if this is related to the current beta, or just something that I've never noticed before...   But if you look in the screenshot.   At the 'platform categories' view, for the 'all arcade' selection - it pulls a random video from that list (cool) and a random background image (fan art background I think), but you can see they're two completely different games. 

Is it possible to get these to stay in sink?    So it would pull  'random video + random background' from the same game?

[elwooha6]

I finally got some time to test things on beta3. I'm not sure if this is actually beta3 related but I have noticed that on a fresh install with beta3 my PS3 games (installed in RPCS3) are not auto populating. Other than that I've had good success so far.

EDIT: Nvm about the PS3 issue, was a user error. beta3 seems to be working fine for me.

Edited April 20 by elwooha6

[cheguewara]

I wanted to upgrade from 13.18 to 13.21 but get error message i cant read because of another launchbox dialogue box is blocking the view.

Went back to 13.18

The last few updates were and are a mess... 

[AngryScotsman]

 

BigBOx not working with new update GG WP

[Aussiedroid]

On 4/12/2025 at 1:45 AM, faeran said:

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.

Besides being a redunant option for many as we have other quality players already installed, the primary concern I have with WMP is the logging/telemetry that it provides back to MS. It reports back what is being played and has done for a long time - this is a privacy/security concern. I can only imagine the W11 version is even worse these days!

I appreciate this is not everyone's focus and they just want videos to play properly, but for me it is a high priority.

Also, I have installed a 'hardened' version of Windows 11, which strips out and blocks installation / registry changes for most of the additional apps bundled with Windows. This means I cannot install WMP even if I wanted to without a full reinstall of the OS which is not a viable option.

I mainly use Launchbox vs Bigbox, and have found some issues with VLC not displaying the video when choosing a system (although the sound is playing) so it is great to see this being addressed, but it is unfortunate that WMP was chosen.

Given K-Lite is already in the mix with this release, it would be great to have another independant option for the player like Media Player Classic (mpc-hc) added to replace VLC.

Could this be considered for future releases?

 

Some additional feedback:

It would be good to clarify with some detail in the media installation pop-up what specifically is being installed and what it will do if there is already an existing install of K-Lite or other components that it installs. I declined and skipped this step when upgrading to ensure it did not mess with my current install/settings of K-Lite. Does this override or does this identify existing install and no take any further actions? Likewise for any other components it is installing.

After completing the install (with the skip), hit issues with the video playback as it defaults to WMP even though I declined the install. Took me some time to figure out why and revert back to VLC. Not ideal.

Another upgrade issue I experienced coming from 13.18, after upgrading to 13.21, LB would not even load with a plugin error for 'ScummVMImport.dll'. This also took some time to figure out how to restore LB working. Deleting the dll and then repairing plugin after I could load LB again did the trick, and I assume this dll is no longer required in the current version but couldnt find much in the forums about it?

 

Thanks for all the great updates and reading my feedback. I really, really hope that other players are considered for future versions.

 

[dukdukgoos]

Agree with what Aussiedroid wrote re: WMP and MPC-HC.

I was able to decline K-Lite with the 13.21 final installer. However, it forced me to install the Windows Desktop Runtime 3.x, which is redundant as I already had a later version installed (8 or 9). After trying to complete the install without installing the Desktop Runtime unsuccessfully a couple of times I gave up, let it install, then uninstalled it after the LB install finished. Everything seems to work fine without it since I had the later version of Desktop Runtime installed.

Please update the installer next time to check if Desktop Runtime is already installed (including later versions) before forcing the 3.x version to install.

On the positive side I like the media pack feature, great idea!

[Galaxian]

I got a crash using the Neon Deluxe Arcade theme (never happened pre 13.21):

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

App:     Big Box
Version: 13.21
Theme:   Neon Deluxe Arcade
Type:    System.NullReferenceException
Site:    Boolean CompareMetaWatcher(System.Object, System.Object, Boolean)
Source:  Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows

   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Integrations.MAME.MameHighScores.CompareMetaWatcher(Object reference, Object token, Boolean extractres)
   at InfoPrototypeWatcher.FindDataSchema(String reference, String token, Boolean extractres, InfoPrototypeWatcher)
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Integrations.MAME.MameHighScores.<>c__DisplayClass20_0.AwakeMetaManager(Object sender, EventArgs args)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.RaiseOnExited()
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.CompletionCallback(Object waitHandleContext, Boolean wasSignaled)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
--- End of stack trace from previous location ---
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at System.Threading.RegisteredWaitHandle.PerformCallback(Boolean timedOut)
   at System.Threading.ThreadPoolWorkQueue.Dispatch()
   at System.Threading.PortableThreadPool.WorkerThread.WorkerThreadStart()

Recent Log:

   14:54:49 Exception

Edited April 27 by Galaxian

[xokia]

On 4/25/2025 at 8:52 AM, cheguewara said:

I wanted to upgrade from 13.18 to 13.21 but get error message i cant read because of another launchbox dialogue box is blocking the view.

Went back to 13.18

The last few updates were and are a mess... 

13.18 seems to be rock solid for me to. 13.21 did improve over the other releases i.e. it was usable. But BigBox still randomly crashes. Also for whatever reason 13.21 seems slower then 13.18.

Hopefully it continues to mature and the rest of us can upgrade sometime in the near future. They are taking feedback and working on things so hang in there.

[C-Beats]

On 4/26/2025 at 4:38 AM, dukdukgoos said:

Agree with what Aussiedroid wrote re: WMP and MPC-HC.

I was able to decline K-Lite with the 13.21 final installer. However, it forced me to install the Windows Desktop Runtime 3.x, which is redundant as I already had a later version installed (8 or 9). After trying to complete the install without installing the Desktop Runtime unsuccessfully a couple of times I gave up, let it install, then uninstalled it after the LB install finished. Everything seems to work fine without it since I had the later version of Desktop Runtime installed.

Please update the installer next time to check if Desktop Runtime is already installed (including later versions) before forcing the 3.x version to install.

On the positive side I like the media pack feature, great idea!

This isn't how .NET runtimes work at all... You need the runtime version a program is compiled against to being to run said application. Our CEF dependency runs on .NET Core 3.1 and thus that runtime version is required on your computer to use it. The application cannot utilize the .NET 9.0 runtime as the runtimes aren't backwards compatible. Our application packages the runtime requirements with it and so you don't run into that. We're actively looking into ways to replace CEF to remove all of that (as well as other issues we regularly encounter because of it) but until we do we have to ensure you have the runtime it uses installed for it to work correctly.

[faeran]

Locking this thread, as the beta is over.

Anyone with a user specific issue can create a dedicated thread for it in their appropriate section, if you are looking for troubleshooting help.

For anyone experiencing a crash, please report it by pasting the entire crash log, along with all relevant context, by clicking on the top header menu, HELP & SUPPORT > REPORT A BUG

On 4/26/2025 at 1:09 AM, Aussiedroid said:

It would be good to clarify with some detail in the media installation pop-up what specifically is being installed and what it will do if there is already an existing install of K-Lite or other components that it installs. I declined and skipped this step when upgrading to ensure it did not mess with my current install/settings of K-Lite. Does this override or does this identify existing install and no take any further actions? Likewise for any other components it is installing.

After completing the install (with the skip), hit issues with the video playback as it defaults to WMP even though I declined the install. Took me some time to figure out why and revert back to VLC. Not ideal.

Another upgrade issue I experienced coming from 13.18, after upgrading to 13.21, LB would not even load with a plugin error for 'ScummVMImport.dll'. This also took some time to figure out how to restore LB working. Deleting the dll and then repairing plugin after I could load LB again did the trick, and I assume this dll is no longer required in the current version but couldnt find much in the forums about it?

 

Thanks for all the great updates and reading my feedback. I really, really hope that other players are considered for future versions.

Thanks for the feedback.

This makes sense. While we know that the default will end up being WMP, we didn't want to force k-lite on any user. However, by skipping the recommended course of action, users should expect that some things may not work as intended. All checks in the current rendition of the installer are just that, checks. If a user is deemed to already have something like a .NET dependency, the C++ dependency, or the k-lite dependency, then the installer will bypass it automatically. If a user has all dependencies, then the installer/updater will complete without user action required. This is the first release where we can actually say that, as before there was a mandatory Direct X installer that required UAC action for every update, which is no longer the case.

As the warning states in the app when you switch to VLC, that playback engine is in a deprecated state, it's only there until we can find and implement an alternative, and users should expect problems when using it, whether it be performance, crashes, or freezes. If you run into any of those, then we recommend that a user switches back to WMP before asking us for help so this can be ruled out as the issue. Alternatives are being actively looked at. Some are instantly not an option, as the feature set is just not there, but there are other wrappers that have some promise. This process is going to take time, but we are hopeful to have one ready by next release.

ScummVMImport.dll is not an official plugin (it was made by a community member), so in order for that to have made it into your plugins folders, it would have been manually downloaded and added by a user.