Getting back into the LB game

[wolfhound89]

I have been a long time Launch Box supporter.  Unfortunately, not a consistent user.  I have updated on a regular basis so the few systems I do have continue to work.

My question is this.  I have given so some thought to running LB off of a USB drive with all my Emulators and Roms on it.  For portability mostly.  I do have an older 8TB USB drive that was running HS on it.  I just did not like HS as much as LB so it just kind of sat on a shelf.  Would like to remove HS completely from said USB drive without issue if possible.

I tried to do some research on how to install LB on a USB drive and while most of the videos I found were older they all talked about doing an install on a PC and then copying it over to the USB.  Is that still the case?  Are there OS dependency concerns such as .net?

This is the crawling stage just to get it installed and configured.  I know setting up the various emulators will require some work. 

Thanks.

[C-Beats]

Installing it direct to the USB/External should work, it's just that literally anything you want to do to build the library is going to take forever compared to running it locally on drive and then just copying over the folder structure when done. Biggest potential issues you'll run into is a machine you plug the drive into not having the right .NET dependencies (Direct X runtime, .NET 3.1 Desktop runtime) installed or the emulators in question not being set up correctly to be portable (assuming they can in the first place)

[JoeViking245]

A link to the .NET 3.1 dependency can be found in the  LaunchBox Strategy Guide under Moving Your LaunchBox Instance to a New PC.

In general, most ("newer") Windows installs will (should) have the DirectX runtimes.  But if you have issues with the PC you connect to, that's something to look at.

[wolfhound89]

Thank you for the responses.  I appreciate it.  Could I do a LB install on one PC mapping to the USB for Roms?  Get to a place I am happy with and then copy that configuration over to another PC or am I over thinking it? Or is a fully configured USB a better way to go?

The real driver for me is not having enough local HDD space for all that I would want off of the 8TB USB drive.

Thank you.

 

[C-Beats]

To be truly portable all emulators and games would need to be inside of the LB directory (which is the default locations) OR stay in the same relative position. You'd have to repoint all your ROMs after moving the LB data to the drive doing it the way you described. I'd just build it on top of the HDD, just won't be lightning fast but never would moving that much stuff over to it either.

[Red_Fawkes_1991]

Also, if you plan on using it's portability over multiple PC while using modern 3D emulators, takes a bit of effort prior to it making sure all the codecs/DirectX/ necessarly plugins are installed and configured on each computers. 

And since both BB/LB would run over the same external drives as the emulators and roms, if you plan on using modern 3D games, i highly recommand doing so over a SSD external drive linked over true USB C.

I used to have all my modern games and roms over Samsung T7 external drives and i remember it running smootly without much loading screen on PC games, while on external HDD it used to take forever.

Hope it goes well for you!

[wolfhound89]

hank you for all the information.  I think that I am going to adjust my approach given some of the variables that were brought up to consider.

 

I think that I am going to use the 8TB USB drive on my home PC.  Set-up LB to run with the ROMs off of the USB drive.  My goal is to get a few systems imported each week.  The systems  that require emulators other than RetroArch (Dolphin) will take some time.  Non-RetroArch have been a big hill for me to climb in the past but I think that I will succeed this time.

 

Since I also purchased an Android LB license I will install LB on an Android box and run a dedicated slimed down amount of ROMS off of a dedicated USB drive for that setup.

 

I think that I had a grand idea but didn’t fully realize some of the software challenges that were before me. 

 

Appreciate the forum.  I am sure as I move along on this project I will be back in looking for guides and assistance.

[JoeViking245]

3 minutes ago, wolfhound89 said:

The systems  that require emulators other than RetroArch (Dolphin) will take some time.  Non-RetroArch have been a big hill for me to climb in the past but I think that I will succeed this time.

LaunchBox can install AND setup a few of the recommended emulators for you. Making [some] "non-RetroArch" emulators more of a 'downhill slide' rather than a 'climb'.

These (as of this writing) include:

• BigPEmu (Atari Jaguar)
• Dolphin (Wii and GameCube)
• MAME (Arcade)
• PCSX2 (PS2)
• ScummVM
• Xemu (Xbox)

e.g.  When you go to import your Wii games, the Import Wizard should ask you if you want LaunchBox to install the recommended Dolphin emulator.  (Suggestion, click Yes)  It will then, at the end of the import process, install Dolphin and configure it to be portable.  Then it's just a matter of selecting a game and clicking Play.

An added bonus with this is, if there's an update available for these emulators (MAME excluded as the versions are ROM-set-version dependent), when you go to Tools - Manage Emulators, the status column will indicate if an update is available.

[wolfhound89]

Thank you @JoeViking245 That is virtually my list of emulators that I am looking to use.  I want to get MAME up and going first for nostalgia sake.

 

In LB I see that I get a message to update my plugins for Dolphin and RetroArch.  I don't recall installing them.  Did LB install when I imported some of my ROMs?  Do those need to be updated outside of LB?

 

Thanks.

 

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, wolfhound89 said:

Thank you @JoeViking245 That is virtually my list of emulators that I am looking to use.  I want to get MAME up and going first for nostalgia sake.

You're welcome!  

1 hour ago, wolfhound89 said:

In LB I see that I get a message to update my plugins for Dolphin and RetroArch.  I don't recall installing them.  Did LB install when I imported some of my ROMs?  Do those need to be updated outside of LB?

You update those in LaunchBox via   Tools < Manage < Plugins...