Maps and text passwords - What do i do with them?

[Shredder_guitar]

So I've got all these stage maps and diagrams and text file walkthroughs and passwords that I've collected from random places over the years. I've stored this stuff in Rlauncher, but I'm trying to move all files out of rlauncher and store them elsewhere and cleanup storage space, but still be able to utilize them. Launchbox has a place for manuals...but I don't see or know of any place other than that I may be able to utilize them. 
Looking for ideas or suggestions on what to do with them. I don't want to just delete them. 

[JoeViking245]

10 minutes ago, Shredder_guitar said:

Looking for ideas or suggestions on what to do with them.

For the images, put them into a pdf.  Text files can stay as is.

• Alien Syndrome (stage maps).pdf
• Alien Syndrome (Walkthrough).txt
• Alien Syndrome (Walkthru - FAQ).txt

Then add these as Additional Apps to the game(s) to show up as documents.

[dragon57]

Have you tried using those assets with the LaunchBox pause screen functionality? It seems like the perfect way of using them.

[dragon57]

7 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

For the images, put them into a pdf.  Text files can stay as is.

• Alien Syndrome (stage maps).pdf
• Alien Syndrome (Walkthrough).txt
• Alien Syndrome (Walkthru - FAQ).txt

Then add these as Additional Apps to the game(s) to show up as documents.

Another great idea.

[Shredder_guitar]

1 hour ago, dragon57 said:

Have you tried using those assets with the LaunchBox pause screen functionality? It seems like the perfect way of using them.

Pause is where I ultimately want them, but I don't know how to get them there, going to try @JoeViking245's suggestion, if they show up as doc's that may solve the issue, I know that different menus appear sometimes in pause...but I don't know what causes that. 

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, dragon57 said:

using those assets with the LaunchBox pause screen functionality?

 

14 minutes ago, Shredder_guitar said:

Pause is where I ultimately want them, but I don't know how to get them there

Additional App .txt and .pdf files (plus several other file types, e.g. web links like my "ArcadeItalia") will appear in the Game Details panel as clickable links.

[At least] pdf files (and web links) will appear in the pause menu

(the one above the pdf is a web link)

[Shredder_guitar]

1 hour ago, JoeViking245 said:

 

Additional App .txt and .pdf files (plus several other file types, e.g. web links like my "ArcadeItalia") will appear in the Game Details panel as clickable links.

[At least] pdf files (and web links) will appear in the pause menu

(the one above the pdf is a web link)

any special settings i need to have? I tried this and i didn't notice anything different. 

 

I would expect a new menu item to appear in pause, but that didn't happen... 

Edited 17 hours ago by Shredder_guitar

[JoeViking245]

31 minutes ago, Shredder_guitar said:

any special settings i need to have? I tried this and i didn't notice anything different. 

Nope.  Just a link to a .pdf or web link as shown above.

When I said '[At least] pdf files (and web links) will appear in the pause menu`, I failed to mention .txt files will not appear in the Pause Menu. But they will in the game Details Panel.

[Shredder_guitar]

17 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

Nope.  Just a link to a .pdf or web link as shown above.

When I said '[At least] pdf files (and web links) will appear in the pause menu`, I failed to mention .txt files will not appear in the Pause Menu. But they will in the game Details Panel.

ok, I was able to get it to display as a PDF. That takes care of the txt files, seems I have a bunch of converting to do. Not sure about the maps/level maps. Don't really want to commit to PDF's for all of them but I might have to... maps as PDF's aren't very intuitive imo...to be fair, they weren't intuitive as regular png's in rlauncher either... I really think cbz is 'the way' on all this stuff, I would like to see support for that added.. that opens up the possibility for full strategy guides, etc. (just thinking out loud).... anyway this unsticks me for a bit, thanks @JoeViking245 and @dragon57 for the suggestions

[JoeViking245]

No idea what cbz is.  The interweb says something about banking and stocks. But have a feeling that's not what you're referring to.   Regardless, Feature Requests can always be made, top of this page, under Help & Support.

 

Another option for the images is...  

• Create a new emulator that the app path points to C:\Windows\explorer.exe
• Name it what you want 
• Add an Associated Platform. Any platform. Just don't make it default
• Save and close
• Edit your game (e.g. Alien Syndrome)
• Add an Additional App
• Check the box Use Emulator and select the one you created above
• for the apps "ROM path", type in the full path to your stage maps folder
• Click OK to save and close.

Caveat: you can only access this via right-click the game, click Play Version and select the "Additional App".  But it will open the folder containing the images.

[Tsik]

12 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Regardless, Feature Requests can always be made

Hello, sorry if I'm poking my nose into this thread 😁 but perhaps this feature request I made is what could potentially solve the issue with "Pause Menu" and Images, Pdfs, custom pdf readers, text files etc. once and for all!

Thanks. 🙂

Edited 3 hours ago by Tsik

[JoeViking245]

17 minutes ago, Tsik said:

Hello, sorry if I'm poking my nose into this thread 😁 but perhaps this feature request I made is what could potentially solve the issue with "Pause Menu" and Images, Pdfs, custom pdf readers, text files etc. once and for all!

Thanks. 🙂

So, your game's Manual Path points to a batch file?  Just tested and it does work (except of course from the Pause Menu).

You can only set one Manual path per game.  Hence your batch file to allow opening several docs/pdf's/images etc. at once.  If you have several docs (e.g.  Strategy Guide, User Guide, Reference Card, Tips & Tricks) per game, chances are you really only want to open one of those. Rather that all-of-them-at-once.  This is where Additional Apps come in handy.

Note, in BB you do have the option to not use its built-in PDF viewer.

[Shredder_guitar]

I think cbz stands for "comic book zip'.... it's basically a zip file with sequential images and an xml for indexing. Here is some basic info about the technical details of CBZ's https://www.comicconverter.com/about-cbz They are usually viewed in something like comicrack (for comics) or Kavita reader (basically, plex for books, comics, manga, and graphic novels). 
I did a modified version of your suggestion and tried a small portable version of ImageGlass as an emulator (https://imageglass.org) which works great ...as long as it's launched in big box (just as you mentioned). It would work ideal for Maps and stage layouts if there are several images in a folder and supports command line options. But in Pause it doesn't load. There is a possibility of using batch as a wrapper, something similar to what @Tsik suggested, but that also doesn't work in pause. It seems that PDF is the only acceptable thing that functions in a pause menu. Would really like to see an image support for 3rd party app launching like imageviewer or...in theory.. if additional, apps were supported for pause I could connect it to comic rack and launch a cbz viewer for strategy guides. 

If you can't tell already, my opinons of pdf's in general isn't very high...only because they're not very intuitive if you have a document with lots of pages. I'm fine with a few page doc as a pdf, but endless scrolling is annoying (imo)

Edited 2 hours ago by Shredder_guitar

[Tsik]

30 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

(except of course from the Pause Menu).

Well, yes that is exactly what my feature request is all about, the Pause Menu!  I really don't know why the same functionality that is already there though the LaunchBox's right-click menu and BigBox's Game Menu does not work also from the pause menu at least the default one.

Also many games come with many other documents such as keyboard overlays and button guides/maps and put them in there one-by-one per game is A-Pain-In-The-Butt.🙃 Not to mention the freedom of launching them with any PDF/CBZ reader you want. It's common sense (I guess...)

Edited 2 hours ago by Tsik

[JoeViking245]

14 minutes ago, Shredder_guitar said:

There is a possibility of using batch as a wrapper, something similar to what @Tsik suggested, but that also doesn't work in pause.

Additional Apps that are executables ([with the exception of batch files] or use an emulator) are considered Alternate Versions.  To expand on the Feature Request, you'd need a checkbox [or something] to distinguish between it being an Alternate Version, or otherwise.

39 minutes ago, Shredder_guitar said:

It seems that PDF is the only acceptable thing that functions in a pause menu.

From some old notes....  Additional Apps that show in Game Details

• .txt
• .pdf
• .cbr
• .cbz
• .html
• docx
• https//..../
• http//..../

According to this list, you can add your comic book zip files as Additional Apps to appear in at least in the games Details Panel.

As we discovered earlier, .txt files won't show in the Pause Menu. And this may simply be an oversight.  [tested] .docx (MS Word docs) won't appear there either.  So the cbr and cbx most likely won't either.  We do that web links will appear in the Pause Menu.

 

Personally, I'm still not sold on having batch files in the Pause Menu is a means to an end.  But someone in need making a Feature Request to add txt, cbr/cbz files to it seems quite reasonable.

Also, keep in mind, the number of the added documents to the Pause Menu is limited to the available real-estate in its UI.  So do you add an additional checkbox to show/not-show in the Pause Menu?

[Shredder_guitar]

25 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

  So do you add an additional checkbox to show/not-show in the Pause Menu?

In my opinion of a perfect world, I would set up a cbz as an additional document and assign the 'emulator/supplemental program' to handle it same as any emulator, the pause menu would see it as a document and launch it just like any other emulator with parameters that I give it...the pieces are all already there, ...just whatever backend mechanism is not there to treat it like a program launch is not in place. I could do without the batch wrapper, if that functionality is already in place. 
The functionality in launchbox, while also useful and ideal, does not facilitate the use of the material in-gam. I want to be able to pause the menu...check a strategy guide or map (reasonably quickly) then, unpause and go back to playing. 

Edited 1 hour ago by Shredder_guitar

[JoeViking245]

7 minutes ago, Shredder_guitar said:

set up a cbz as an additional document and assign the 'emulator/supplemental program' to handle it same as any emulator, the pause menu would see it as a document and launch it just like any other emulator with parameters that I give it

[devil's advocate] Would you do the same with pdf's?  vs. [both of these] having their respective reader apps installed on your system.  Granted, having them 'installed' would negate the portability aspect of LB/BB.  Devil be damned.  

So your request would/could be, (something like...) when loading the Pause Menu, have LB look at the Additional Apps Application Path's file extension to determine if it should be added to the Menu (like it currently does).  But then if the Additional App uses an emulator, don't negate it based on that. But rather look at the ROM Path's (which was called the Application Path before checking Use Emulator) file extension and proceed accordingly.

[Shredder_guitar]

14 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

[devil's advocate] Would you do the same with pdf's?  vs. [both of these] having their respective reader apps installed on your system.  Granted, having them 'installed' would negate the portability aspect of LB/BB.  Devil be damned.  

So your request would/could be, (something like...) when loading the Pause Menu, have LB look at the Additional Apps Application Path's file extension to determine if it should be added to the Menu (like it currently does).  But then if the Additional App uses an emulator, don't negate it based on that. But rather look at the ROM Path's (which was called the Application Path before checking Use Emulator) file extension and proceed accordingly.

I truely think that 'documents' like manuals and strategy guides should be standardized as cbz's , much more palatable experience than a pdf. I think a PDF only serves well for use cases like a cheat code list or a quick faq lookup...lengthy documents = cbz.

I do feel strongly enough about it to submit a formal request. 

Edited 38 minutes ago by Shredder_guitar