LaunchBox 13.26 Beta Thread

[faeran]

Hi Everyone,

We are kicking off a new beta testing round for an upcoming hotfix release. This is a very short release cycle aimed at addressing major regressions introduced in 13.25, along with a handful of smaller fixes where possible. The goal here is speed and stability so we can get this hotfix out the door as quickly as we can.

Because of that, this beta is especially focused on verification. If something was broken for you in 13.25, this is the build we need your help validating.

---

Users on 13.25 and 13.26 beta 1 Having Update Issues

If you are not seeing an update notification to update the main fix is by going to Menu > Help > Check for Updates...

That will force an update check and then allow you to update.

Why?

In early versions of 13.25 and in beta 1, the option to "Check for Updates on Startup" was incorrectly being applied, stopping LaunchBox from checking for updates after startup.

Version 13.25 was updated with a fix, so anyone that downloaded and installed 13.25 after the fix was put in place won't have this issue.

On the beta track, this was solved in Beta 2 and onwards.

---

Things We Need Help Testing

Please focus on the areas below. Even a quick confirmation that something now works as expected is extremely helpful.

• Background music no longer restarts or skips the current track when the screensaver activates (Beta 2)
  While background music is playing, wait for or manually activate the screensaver and confirm the currently playing song continues smoothly without restarting or skipping to the next track, including setups where only a single music track is configured
• Platform videos in LaunchBox now stop playing correctly when the platform details pane is closed (Beta 2)
  With auto-play videos enabled, test using both the WMP and FFmpeg video engines, close the Platform or Game Details Pane, click on a platform with a platform theme video, and confirm the video does not continue playing; switch focus away from and back to LaunchBox to ensure the video does not start unexpectedly, then reopen the details pane and confirm videos play correctly again
• Restored video playback on Platform Hybrid views where videos were previously not playing (Beta 2)
  In Big Box, navigate to a Platform Hybrid view that includes videos and confirm platform or game videos now play as expected instead of remaining blank or static

• Fixed Vertical Legacy Platform Wheels not appearing on load in Big Box
  If you use an older Big Box theme with vertical platform wheels, open a platform view and confirm the wheel list now appears immediately without needing to scroll

• Fixed platform and game background images not displaying in Big Box platform views
  If you previously saw a black background, or no background image where there should have been one, launch Big Box with the affected theme and confirm platform and game backgrounds now appear correctly

• Fixed the left sidebar not toggling in LaunchBox
  In LaunchBox, use View > Show or Hide > Side Bar or press CTRL + S and confirm the sidebar now shows and hides correctly

• Fixed background and game music not looping in LaunchBox and Big Box
  Load background music in Big Box or game music in either LaunchBox or Big Box and confirm the track now loops continuously instead of stopping at the end

• Fixed volume controls not affecting audio correctly with both WMP and FFmpeg
  In Big Box, adjust as many volume related settings as possible and confirm changes actually affect audio levels when using either video engine

• Fixed background music behavior with screensavers
  Let Big Box enter the screensaver and confirm background music continues playing and responds properly to your sound and music settings

• Fixed game music incorrectly continuing into the screensaver
  Start game music in Big Box, activate or wait for the screensaver, and confirm game music now stops when it should, instead of carrying over

• Fixed game music priority over video audio inside the screensaver
  In Big Box, if you have the music priority option enabled, let the screensaver run and confirm game music properly plays when a game with music appears

• Added a new FinalBurn Neo import step for Arcade platforms
  Start a Single Platform Import or drag and drop import, create a FinalBurn Neo style platform with Scrape As set to Arcade, and confirm the FBNeo specific import page appears and the correct games are imported

• Fixed Arcade imports rejecting files not listed in Metadata.xml
  Try importing non MAME Arcade files such as Hypseus Singe bat files using drag and drop and confirm they now import correctly

• Fixed RetroAchievements scanning for 7zip game files
  If you use 7zip compressed games, trigger a RetroAchievements scan and confirm LaunchBox successfully extracts the ROM to a temporary folder and identifies compatibility. Note that scans may take longer for large files, and it is highly recommended never to use 7zip to compress your games.

---

Known Issues

We will continue to add to this list as new issues are discovered. Internally, we have already begun working through these.

• Platform videos may still play under certain conditions when the Game or Platform details pane is closed

• An Automatic ROM empty list bug caused by the background monitor scan could crash LaunchBox

---

Full Changelog

You can view the complete changelog here (it gets updated first):
https://www.launchbox-app.com/about/changelog

Beta 1:

• New Feature: Added full FinalBurn Neo arcade ROM import support across both the Single Platform Import wizard and drag and drop imports, making it easier to bring FBNeo based arcade collections into LaunchBox

• New Feature: Added a new Big Box option that lets video audio play alongside background music, giving you more control over how your setup sounds with proper music priority behavior

• Improved: Smarter auto play behavior for thumbnails so videos only auto play when a game has music and background music resumes properly when it does not

• Improved: Improved background rendering safety so image and video backgrounds are handled correctly across views without images being treated like videos

• Improved: Improved image caching reliability to better handle file system edge cases and ensure cached images are written successfully

• Improved: Reduced memory usage in Carousel and Media List views by ensuring image resources are properly released to help prevent memory leaks over long sessions

• Improved: Hardened video volume handling to prevent rare errors when video players are shut down or reloaded

• Fixed: Background music reliability in Big Box with better playback tracking to prevent music from stopping early or behaving inconsistently at the end of a track

• Fixed: Cleaned up how music behaves when entering and leaving the screensaver so audio starts and stops as intended

• Fixed: Resolved an issue where the left sidebar could fail to show or hide correctly

• Fixed: A problem that could cause the Single Platform and drag and drop import wizards to become unresponsive near the end of the import process should no longer occur

• Fixed: RetroAchievements scanning for 7zip compressed games by extracting ROMs to a temporary location before scanning, allowing compatibility checks to work correctly for archived files

• Fixed: Background and game music now loop properly in Big Box and game music loops properly in LaunchBox instead of stopping at the end of a track

• Fixed: Arcade imports no longer incorrectly reject files that are not listed in Metadata.xml when force metadata is not enabled, improving support for non-MAME Arcade files such as Hypseus Singe

• Fixed: Game music no longer continues into the screensaver when it should stop

• Fixed: Game music priority and audio mixing inside the screensaver now behave correctly when the relevant option is enabled

 

Beta 2:

• Improved: Optimized music playback in LaunchBox to run off the main thread and reuse the same VLC session, improving overall performance and playback stability
• Improved: Addressed multiple reported issues related to music playback reliability and session management
• Fixed: Background music no longer restarts or skips the current track when the screensaver activates
• Fixed: Platform videos in LaunchBox now stop playing correctly when the platform details pane is closed
• Fixed: Restored video playback on Platform Hybrid views where videos were previously not playing
• Fixed: The Play Video Audio with Background Music option can now be toggled independently from the Prioritize Soundtrack Music setting, allowing both options to work as expected
• Fixed: Resolved an index out of range error that could occur during automatic ROM imports in rare empty list scenarios

 

---

 

As always, thank you to everyone who takes the time to help us test these builds.

[bbweiners]

Hi @faeran,

There seems to be a video issue. If you try using your theme Aetherial the Platform/Filter and Game video won't play.

Also, there is an issue where if you use the PlatformHybridView on any theme the search feature will show you results for every filter/platform, not just the filter/platform you're searching in. It also changes your view to the TextGamesView.

Thanks!

[SqHd]

Hello. Thanks for the hotfix beta. Background fanart is back for Default theme (in regular and hybrid views). As bbweiners reported, platform / game videos do not show in hybrid views for the Default theme (or in Aetherial). But they do work for the original regular views.

[faeran]

54 minutes ago, bbweiners said:

Hi @faeran,

There seems to be a video issue. If you try using your theme Aetherial the Platform/Filter and Game video won't play.

Also, there is an issue where if you use the PlatformHybridView on any theme the search feature will show you results for every filter/platform, not just the filter/platform you're searching in. It also changes your view to the TextGamesView.

Thanks!

1 minute ago, SqHd said:

Hello. Thanks for the hotfix beta. Background fanart is back for Default theme (in regular and hybrid views). As bbweiners reported, platform / game videos do not show in hybrid views for the Default theme (or in Aetherial). But they do work for the original regular views.

Thanks guys. Fixed internally, should be in beta 2.

[faeran]

1 hour ago, bbweiners said:

Also, there is an issue where if you use the PlatformHybridView on any theme the search feature will show you results for every filter/platform, not just the filter/platform you're searching in. It also changes your view to the TextGamesView.

This part is actually working "as intended", in that there was no effort to filter down search results like this in hybrid views.

I'll see what it would take, but it would be a new effort, so I'm not sure where in line it will get placed.
 

As far as switching to the TextGamesView, that's by design. The PlatformHybridView is a Platform view with a game list tacked on (not the other way around), which means, that the only true Game view in that theme is the TextGamesView, which Search results requires to utilize.

[Suhrvivor]

2 hours ago, faeran said:

Fixed Vertical Legacy Platform Wheels not appearing on load in Big Box

I had this issue, it seems to be fixed since 13.26 beta 1.

I also had random crashes when running Bigbox on my laptop at work (core i3 10gen with intel GPU and Win11), I'm gonna test that on this beta to see if that's fixed.

[The Papaw]

UPDATE, finally connected after 15-20 minutes

 

When I opened LB and seen the beta update. I told it no, until I read what it was about. Now when I open LB, it doesn't notify me of the beta. When I go to the menu and check for update, it finds it, but just hangs and never downloads. BB tells me of the update and also just hangs

LB

BB

Edited Wednesday at 09:36 PM by The Papaw

[JaredN]

First of all, thank you very much for this quick update, which fixes a lot of problems!

However, I have noticed two small issues:

1. Unchecking “Play Video Audio with Background Music” has no effect if “Prioritize Soundtrack Music over Video Audio” is not also checked. If “Prioritize ...” is not also checked, the video audio remains present, regardless of the status of “Play Video Audio with Background Music.”

2. When background music is selected, launching the screensaver (automatically or with a key) causes it to skip to the next track.

Once again, thank you very much for your responsiveness in releasing this beta!

Edited Wednesday at 08:55 PM by JaredN

[Fursphere]

13.26 Beta 1 appears to have a crippling memory leak (guessing) or something in BigBox.  After 45 minutes to an hour in screensaver mode (just idle / chilling) it becomes very sluggish.   30-45 minutes after that, and its dead.   ctrl-alt-del - kill app time. 

False alarm.  I had another app go bat shit crazy the same time I upgraded to Beta 1.   Never mind.  Nothing to see here.   

Edited yesterday at 04:53 AM by Fursphere

[xokia]

I found an issue with launchbox and retroarch that was driving me nuts. retroarch allows controller remaps based on the directory the game was run from. So you can choose directory_name.rmp and it will load a controller remap based entirely on the directory the game comes from. This is useful for something like sega games where one emulator runs multiple systems but the controls can be different. So you remap the controls based on the system that was run.

Retroarch uses the directory path to figure out how to name the map file. When it tries to load directory map files the directory name before the rom needs to match with the map file. Launchbox breaks this if the folder is zipped or compressed.

In both cases the file is compressed as "Z:\Arcade\Sega Master System\Altered Beast.7z" (this happen if using .zip or .7z)

If I dont let launchbox unzip the file and just pass it to retroarch directly I get the following in the retroarch log file
[INFO] [Content] Loading content file: "Z:\Arcade\Sega Master System\Altered Beast.sms"
If I choose save content directory remap I get Sega Master System.rmp and this will auto load anytime a game loads from this directory

 If I let launchbox unzip the folder first I get the following
[INFO] [Content] Loading content file: "Y:\LaunchBox\ThirdParty\7-Zip\Temp\Altered Beast.sms".
If I choose save content directory remap I get Temp.rmp

Any other system that has compressed roms now tries to use Temp.rmp and is completely hosed

The Temp directory is completely fine but launchbox should retain the directory directly in front of the ROM. I think retroarch would then function correctly.
 "Y:\LaunchBox\ThirdParty\7-Zip\Temp\Sega Master System\Altered Beast.sms"

Edited yesterday at 06:17 AM by xokia

[faeran]

17 hours ago, The Papaw said:

UPDATE, finally connected after 15-20 minutes

 

When I opened LB and seen the beta update. I told it no, until I read what it was about. Now when I open LB, it doesn't notify me of the beta. When I go to the menu and check for update, it finds it, but just hangs and never downloads. BB tells me of the update and also just hangs

LB

BB

Did you manage to get it to download? Nothing on our side indicates that anything is wrong there.

17 hours ago, JaredN said:

First of all, thank you very much for this quick update, which fixes a lot of problems!

However, I have noticed two small issues:

1. Unchecking “Play Video Audio with Background Music” has no effect if “Prioritize Soundtrack Music over Video Audio” is not also checked. If “Prioritize ...” is not also checked, the video audio remains present, regardless of the status of “Play Video Audio with Background Music.”

2. When background music is selected, launching the screensaver (automatically or with a key) causes it to skip to the next track.

Once again, thank you very much for your responsiveness in releasing this beta!

Thanks for the report. Both are fixed internally and should be part of beta 2.

9 hours ago, xokia said:

I found an issue with launchbox and retroarch that was driving me nuts. retroarch allows controller remaps based on the directory the game was run from. So you can choose directory_name.rmp and it will load a controller remap based entirely on the directory the game comes from. This is useful for something like sega games where one emulator runs multiple systems but the controls can be different. So you remap the controls based on the system that was run.

Retroarch uses the directory path to figure out how to name the map file. When it tries to load directory map files the directory name before the rom needs to match with the map file. Launchbox breaks this if the folder is zipped or compressed.

In both cases the file is compressed as "Z:\Arcade\Sega Master System\Altered Beast.7z" (this happen if using .zip or .7z)

If I dont let launchbox unzip the file and just pass it to retroarch directly I get the following in the retroarch log file
[INFO] [Content] Loading content file: "Z:\Arcade\Sega Master System\Altered Beast.sms"
If I choose save content directory remap I get Sega Master System.rmp and this will auto load anytime a game loads from this directory

 If I let launchbox unzip the folder first I get the following
[INFO] [Content] Loading content file: "Y:\LaunchBox\ThirdParty\7-Zip\Temp\Altered Beast.sms".
If I choose save content directory remap I get Temp.rmp

Any other system that has compressed roms now tries to use Temp.rmp and is completely hosed

The Temp directory is completely fine but launchbox should retain the directory directly in front of the ROM. I think retroarch would then function correctly.
 "Y:\LaunchBox\ThirdParty\7-Zip\Temp\Sega Master System\Altered Beast.sms"

Thanks for the report. I believe it's worked like this for a very long time (like over half a decade or longer). So, while this won't make the hotfix, it's probably about time we take another look at this to smooth out the edges that may have been introduced since its implementation. I'll see about remembering to go through that entire pipeline early in the next beta cycle to see if there's some easy wins here.

[xokia]

Quote

1 hour ago, faeran said:

Thanks for the report. I believe it's worked like this for a very long time (like over half a decade or longer). So, while this won't make the hotfix, it's probably about time we take another look at this to smooth out the edges that may have been introduced since its implementation. I'll see about remembering to go through that entire pipeline early in the next beta cycle to see if there's some easy wins here.

When I searched online the common solution was to unzip files. I think folks just give up. If you kept the directory in front I "think" that would fix it. I could still see an issue if someone had z:\Sega Master System\roms\Altered Beast.zip and then they had some other system that \rom in front of the system name they would collide. The directory rempap file would be called rom and cause the same failure. BUT.......rather then launchbox try to find the correct system name I "think" launchbox just needs to grab the directory immediately in from of the rom leave it to the user to resolve the directory issue. Someone could create a redundant directory z:\Sega Master System\roms\Sega Master System\alteredbeast.zip. If someone had it sorted z:\Sega Master System\USA\alteredbeast.zip vs z:\Sega Master System\Europe\alteredbeast.zip the same redundant directory structure would solve the issue just my .$02. 

Edited yesterday at 04:24 PM by xokia

[The Papaw]

2 hours ago, faeran said:

Did you manage to get it to download?

Yes Sir, I had added an Update to comment, it Just hung there for like 15-20 minutes and then downloaded as normal. Never seen that one before

[faeran]

55 minutes ago, xokia said:

When I searched online the common solution was to unzip files. I think folks just give up. If you kept the directory in front I "think" that would fix it. I could still see an issue if someone had z:\Sega Master System\roms\Altered Beast.zip and then they had some other system that \rom in front of the system name they would collide. The directory rempap file would be called rom and cause the same failure. BUT.......rather then launchbox try to find the correct system name I "think" launchbox just needs to grab the directory immediately in from of the rom leave it to the user to resolve the directory issue. Someone could create a redundant directory z:\Sega Master System\roms\Sega Master System\alteredbeast.zip. If someone had it sorted z:\Sega Master System\USA\alteredbeast.zip vs z:\Sega Master System\Europe\alteredbeast.zip the same redundant directory structure would solve the issue just my .$02. 

Well, for your example, RetroArch should already be able to play a Sega Master System game without the need to extract the file, so in that scenario, it may be a bit redundant to use LaunchBox's extraction method there (depending on core used.) Most small ROM based cores can handle playing without extracting 7z and zip, where disc based systems, almost all of them have their own compression format that they support these days that can be read without the need for extraction, which , together, all becomes a lot better for your hard drive in the long run as well.

Anyway, in order for this to work, we'd have to basically follow what RetroArch is trying to do. So if a user is using the Content Directory setting for save files and they have made the choice to utilize a region folder like \\Sega Master System\USA\, then RetroArch will place your save files inside of a USA folder, and ignore Sega Master System entirely. We would need to match this to have our feature make any sense.

 

[xokia]

1 hour ago, faeran said:

Anyway, in order for this to work, we'd have to basically follow what RetroArch is trying to do. So if a user is using the Content Directory setting for save files and they have made the choice to utilize a region folder like \\Sega Master System\USA\, then RetroArch will place your save files inside of a USA folder, and ignore Sega Master System entirely. We would need to match this to have our feature make any sense.

I agree and I am saying this is fine. The user could fix it by adding all their roms at the root of Sega Master system i.e. no USA or Europe or they could add a redundant directory \\Sega Master System\USA\Sega Master System\game.zip Both the USA and Europe would use the Sega Master System.rmp file and be fine.

You leave it to the user to figure out the best way to resolve the directory structure issue. You cant fix a users directory structure or guess all the combinations someone might come up with to organize their roms.

As for passing to retroarch zipped. I have had varying levels of working not working. Sometimes you will get some roms that will not work if passed zipped but work perfectly fine if unzipped. Bug in retroarch....IDK I prefer to unzip to lesson the complexity of debugging later. Not all retroarch emulators support passing zipped files either.

Edited yesterday at 06:49 PM by xokia

[Fursphere]

Just mass unzip all the roms and leave them unzipped.   They're so small you cloud put them on anything at this point.

there is no benefit to having them zipped at this point.

People are playing DOOM on pregnancy tests.  If you're worried about the space that SMS roms take up... its time to upgrade. 

 

Edited yesterday at 06:01 PM by Fursphere

[Suhrvivor]

1 hour ago, Fursphere said:

Just mass unzip all the roms and leave them unzipped.   They're so small you cloud put them on anything at this point.

there is no benefit to having them zipped at this point.

People are playing DOOM on pregnancy tests.  If you're worried about the space that SMS roms take up... its time to upgrade. 

 

That's what i do. But I don't have full rom sets tho, just a handful of titles per system. 

[xokia]

1 hour ago, Fursphere said:

Just mass unzip all the roms and leave them unzipped.   They're so small you cloud put them on anything at this point.

there is no benefit to having them zipped at this point.

People are playing DOOM on pregnancy tests.  If you're worried about the space that SMS roms take up... its time to upgrade. 

 

The doom thing is pretty impressive. Although doesnt look very playable.

I take it you haven't had to buy a HDD over 4TB in the last 6 months? The savings is in aggregate over a large collection.

The other benefit is if you load game save states. keeping them zipped preserves the save state. When launchbox uses the temp directory its using a "new" save state and it preserves the old game save state. I'm not talking abut saving a game. I am talking about when you dump the ram contents of a game and save the game as a save state. It will execute as it was loaded into ram. If you execute from the same directory you alter the save state. Keeping it zipped insures a copy is executed and not the actual save state. Anyway to much time on this discussion. The solution "seems" simple just preserve the directory directly in front of the game. This would prevent launchbox from breaking a feature in retroarch. I'll leave it to launchbox team to decide if the juice is worth the squeeze

Edited 23 hours ago by xokia

[Drybonz]

21 minutes ago, xokia said:

The doom thing is pretty impressive. Although doesnt look very playable.

I think it plays... but not positive.

[kmoney]

I think there is something wrong with this newest beta update. My update did not prompt a notification to download when I opened LaunchBox. I had to check for this new beta update manually even though I have check for updates upon startup and update to beta releases turn on in the options. I have never seen that happen before.