LaunchBox 13.23 - Beta Thread

[faeran]

Hey All,

We are back with another beta round! Thanks to everyone helping us test the latest beta builds. Your feedback is super valuable, so please include the following info when reporting any issues:

📝 When submitting feedback, include:

• Your Windows version
• A clear description of the issue
• Whether the issue can be consistently reproduced
• The steps to reproduce it

🎮 How to Join the Beta

To opt into the beta:

• In LaunchBox, go to Tools > Options > General > Updates
• Enable Update to Beta Releases

When a beta is available, you will be prompted at startup or can check manually via Menu > Help > Check for Updates

🔌 A Quick Note on Plugins

Some beta builds include early versions of official plugins that are not yet live in the Plugin Manager. Because of this:

• You may see update prompts for plugins that are actually newer in the beta

Please avoid updating plugins while using a beta if you are planning to provide feedback. This helps us get accurate data and avoids breaking improvements

🎞️ VLC is now considered legacy

If you are reporting any issue in either LaunchBox or Big Box, you must first ensure your video engine is set to Windows Media Player.

• For Big Box: Go to Options > Video and set the Video Playback Engine to Windows Media Player

• For LaunchBox: Go to Tools > Options > General > Video Playback and do the same

Note that these settings are separate. Changing the setting in one does not affect the other. Always re-evaluate the issue after changing this setting before submitting a report.

 

Beta 1:

• New Premium Feature: Added a new Screensavers feature to Big Box, letting users discover games with fully themeable views and interact directly with the games shown
• Improvement: Platform detail views in both LaunchBox and Big Box now display numerical counts for games that are beaten, completed, or mastered, based on Game Progress Tracking stats
• Fixed: RetroAchievements were not loading in Game Details when using a List View, resulting in no achievement data being shown
• Fixed: Removed the outdated Change Badge Images option from the Badge menu in LaunchBox, which no longer applied after the media manager overhaul in version 13.21
• Fixed: Legacy Big Box themes using Old Default theme code had a stray completed graphic that would always show, regardless of user data
• Fixed: Selecting a game too quickly in Big Box could prevent LEDBlinky from displaying the correct lighting behavior
• Fixed: A specific crash related to the MAME High Score system is now caught with error handling, and logging has been added to help identify the root cause

The screensaver feature is a bit of a work in progress, but the core principles are there. The view itself is designed to be an alternative to Attract Mode. It cycles through games, giving you another avenue to discover games in your library. There's an action button that allows you to quickly navigate to the Game Details page of the game you are looking at. The default theme currently comes with 3 completed views, and 1 placeholder. By release, all 4 views should be filled in for the default theme. Each theme will have the ability to have up to 4 distinct screensaver views, and theme devs have the full breadth of game bindings at their disposal when building out these views. More detailed theming info for theme devs will be coming soon.

[C-Beats]

This beta uses an older .NET runtime (9.0.5) which should also correct the issue of not being able to use LaunchBox from a networked drive. We'll update the changelog in the next beta to reflect this but would appreciate if some one who was having this issue in 13.22 could chime in and verify it's resolved in this beta.