LaunchBox 13.28 Beta Thread

[faeran]

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the LaunchBox 13.28 beta thread.

This release will include a number of larger under the hood changes across both LaunchBox and Big Box. Lots of exciting changes will go in this cycle. We'll be touching core areas of the application, so all the help we can get is much appreciated.

 

Here's what we could use help testing.

 

Beta 1

• 3D Double Jewel Case model - Try the new 3D Double Jewel Case with games that have front, back, and spine artwork, including titles with dual-spine media, and confirm the model displays correctly from multiple angles.
• LaunchBox List View performance - In the default theme, browse a large library using LaunchBox's List View with badges enabled, then confirm scrolling, selection, sorting, column changes, and general navigation feel stable, responsive, and persistent.
• Startup and shutdown experience - Restart and close LaunchBox and Big Box a few times and confirm the revamped startup window and new shutdown progress window display cleanly, show useful status messages, and complete without hanging.
• Startup and Shutdown Applications - Configure apps to launch or close when LaunchBox starts/exits, when Big Box starts/exits, and when switching between LaunchBox and Big Box, then confirm the right apps run or close at the right time. If an app hangs during shutdown, confirm the shutdown progress window shows the stuck step and the force-close option behaves correctly.
• Searchable Options pages - Search for several settings by name and related terms in Options, then confirm the correct pages and settings are easy to find and the search stays responsive.
• Default Image Group and image group overrides - Change the new Default Image Group under Viewing options, then set custom image groups for platforms, playlists, and platform categories. Confirm the correct image types appear throughout the interface, and that "Use Default" clears only the selected override without changing the global default.
• Metadata search while editing games - Edit games with common or ambiguous titles, run metadata searches, and confirm best matches appear first while other possible matches continue loading correctly.
• Multiple install instance detection - Run separate LaunchBox or Big Box installs from different root folders and confirm they can operate independently without incorrectly blocking each other.
• Legacy Big Box theme resource loading - Switch to older Big Box themes such as CriticalZone, Unified, or other legacy themes and confirm their images, styling, views, and navigation load correctly.

 

Full Changelog

Beta 1:

• New Premium Feature: Added a new 3D Double Jewel Case model, including automatic spine handling and dual-spine options
• New Feature: Added configurable Shutdown Applications, so apps can be closed automatically when LaunchBox or Big Box exits or when switching between them
• New Feature: Added a new shutdown progress window that shows what LaunchBox or Big Box is doing while closing, with a force-close option if shutdown hangs
• New Feature: Added play session history tracking, with an option under Data settings to enable or disable it
• New Feature: Added searchable Options pages, making it easier to find settings by name or related terms
• New Feature: Added a Default Image Group setting under Viewing options, so users can choose the default image type used across the interface
• Improvement: Reworked the LaunchBox list view for much better performance in the default theme, especially with large libraries, badges, custom columns, and fast scrolling. The new list view is fully themeable, and custom theme developers can update their themes to support it
• Improvement: Revamped the startup window with a newer WPF-based design and clearer startup status messages
• Improvement: Improved metadata search when editing a game by showing best matches first, then other possible matches as they load
• Improvement: Improved image group handling for platforms, playlists, and platform categories, including a new "Use Default" option to quickly clear a custom image group and return to the global default
• Improvement: Improved LaunchBox and Big Box instance detection so separate installs or root folders can run independently without blocking each other
• Improvement: Improved Options page performance and search responsiveness
• Improvement: Improved ROM import parsing and welcome wizard import handoff behavior
• Improvement: Improved startup/shutdown app handling and switching between LaunchBox and Big Box
• Improvement: Updated the Windows build to use newer native launchers and the .NET 10 runtime/tooling stack
• Fixed: Resolved metadata database replacement/update file lock issues that could block metadata downloads or updates
• Fixed: Resolved Big Box theme resource loading issues for themes loaded from their original installed location
• Fixed: Corrected platform alternate-name matching in the local metadata database
• Fixed: Resolved image group overrides incorrectly changing the global default image group
• Fixed: Corrected playlist image group overrides so playlists with duplicate display names use the correct unique playlist entry

 

Thanks to everyone who helps test and provide feedback. We appreciate all the bug reports, confirmations, and suggestions that help us improve each release.

[damageinc86]

This has already been a feature request in every possible forum (bitbucket, here, and the newer feedback area), for YEARS.  Please,...pleeeaaassseee give bigbox the ability to map PER-Controller navigation mappings for the various different controllers users might have plugged in.  

[ojed4r]

Hello everyone! First of all, I want to thank you for all the updates, features and improvements that you've implemented to LaunchBox all these years. I've been a LaunchBox user for half a decade now and is still my frontend of choice.

I notice that one of the new features for v13.28 is:

"New Feature: Added a new shutdown progress window that shows what LaunchBox or Big Box is doing while closing, with a force-close option if shutdown hangs"

I was wondering, will this feature close all LaunchBox/BigBox processes running in the background as well?

I ask this because there has been a bug since v13.19 that has made me unable to update and has to do with LB archive extractor. The bug can be triggered this way:

If you extract any zipped game that is just a couple of MBs in size while having startup screens enabled, BigBox creates a second instance once you launch the game, and even if you shut down LB completely, the program stays open in the background.

I go more in depth regarding this bug in the following forum post:

Since I have 90% of my roms archived and I like the startup screens, I had to stay on v13.18 since. I just wanted to inform you about this issue and see if it could be fixed for the next update. I feel that the new feature I mentioned earlier could be the solution and finally get rid of this bug.

Thank you and keep up the great work.

[Jabb3rJaw]

Thanks for the hard work but selfishly I was hoping for something related to the crashes multiple people have reported. 

[macmahoun]

2 hours ago, Jabb3rJaw said:

Thanks for the hard work but selfishly I was hoping for something related to the crashes multiple people have reported. 

me too. 🙂

First crash after 5 minutes in BigBox,

[Fursphere]

The new shutdown routine is pretty cool.   Nice touch.   

Both of my upright cabinets have been updated to the beta and are running good so far.  

[Fursphere]

3 hours ago, ojed4r said:

Because there has been a bug since v13.19 that has made me unable to update and has to do with LB archive extractor. The bug can be triggered this way:

 

The 'bug' is that the plugin has not been updated for the newer versions of .NET.   There is nothing wrong with LB/BB itself.  

There are a couple of project forks that have been updated to run with the newer versions of launchbox.  You should check them out.   (github --> insights --> forks)

https://github.com/fraganator/archive-cache-manager

 

[Retrofrogg]

The double jewel case doesn't appear when you go to edit platform then 3D model settings. It's in the list, but when you select it the preview window is blank.

[Jakatsu]

20 hours ago, faeran said:

LaunchBox List View performance - In the default theme, browse a large library using LaunchBox's List View with badges enabled, then confirm scrolling, selection, sorting, column changes, and general navigation feel stable, responsive, and persistent.

Tested with a 18500+ library (all platforms view). Feels responsive enough even when scrolling with a keyboard. Small delay with loading when a video is attached to an entry, same as with image view. Sorting works well with little delay.

 

20 hours ago, faeran said:

Startup and shutdown experience - Restart and close LaunchBox and Big Box a few times and confirm the revamped startup window and new shutdown progress window display cleanly, show useful status messages, and complete without hanging.

LaunchBox: First launch and shutdown kinda slow, but after that both opening and closing LB is about the same as the previous stable version. Status messages seem to be the same as before(?). When I ran the program for 5th time while testing the metadata search, I closed LB but when checking Task Manager, it was still running on background using 1GB of memory, no CPU usage.

 

20 hours ago, faeran said:

Searchable Options pages - Search for several settings by name and related terms in Options, then confirm the correct pages and settings are easy to find and the search stays responsive.

Felt responsive and found the correct settings and pages when searching.

 

20 hours ago, faeran said:

Metadata search while editing games - Edit games with common or ambiguous titles, run metadata searches, and confirm best matches appear first while other possible matches continue loading correctly.

So far so good, best match(es) seem to appear first.

Edited yesterday at 12:30 PM by Jakatsu

[ojed4r]

12 hours ago, Fursphere said:

The 'bug' is that the plugin has not been updated for the newer versions of .NET.   There is nothing wrong with LB/BB itself.  

There are a couple of project forks that have been updated to run with the newer versions of launchbox.  You should check them out.   (github --> insights --> forks)

https://github.com/fraganator/archive-cache-manager

 

@Fursphere I can confirm this is not an issue of the plugin, the plugin got updated and works fine on the latest version. On the forum post I shared, I made a video showing that the bug happens without the plugin. It's definitely a LaunchBox issue. On v13.18 this bug doesn't occur.

[Rlad]

Seems to have broken the layers in CTC themes im making

13,7

 

13.8 Beta

 

 

 

[Drybonz]

On 6/2/2026 at 11:58 AM, faeran said:

• New Feature: Added a Default Image Group setting under Viewing options, so users can choose the default image type used across the interface

This is probably just me not understanding exactly what this means, but haven't the viewing options always shown the same category for each platform?

*edit*  Also... I'm looking at the list mode, and I haven't used it in a long time, but it seems a lot more usable.  Question... are there plans to add an optional, resizable "box image" column to the list mode?  I know it's supposed to be mostly for information sorting, but an image might make it a lot more appealing to some people.

Edited yesterday at 05:58 PM by Drybonz

[Fursphere]

2 hours ago, ojed4r said:

@Fursphere I can confirm this is not an issue of the plugin, the plugin got updated and works fine on the latest version. On the forum post I shared, I made a video showing that the bug happens without the plugin. It's definitely a LaunchBox issue. On v13.18 this bug doesn't occur.

Ok.  I believe you.  

My solution was to just buy bigger drives and unzip everything at rest (that needed to be unzipped).   And trim my collection to remove all the garbage.  (terrabytes of bad stuff...  lol)

[AstroBob]

13 hours ago, Drybonz said:

*edit*  Also... I'm looking at the list mode, and I haven't used it in a long time, but it seems a lot more usable.  Question... are there plans to add an optional, resizable "box image" column to the list mode?  I know it's supposed to be mostly for information sorting, but an image might make it a lot more appealing to some people.

Not yet, but this is a, interesting idea. It would have to stay performant and would probably need to be a uniform image type to remain consistent (possibly a good use for the icon image type), but I scoped it out here if you want to upvote it: 

- https://feedback.launchbox.gg/p/optional-image-column-in-list-view

[Drybonz]

6 hours ago, AstroBob said:

Not yet, but this is a, interesting idea.

It would basically be like the CD cover in most music players (foobar, etc) where the CD cover image is re-sizable and the music track info/metadata is next to it.  That's how I was thinking anyway... just a thought.

[Rlad]

I cant figure out the exact trigger but column sizing can become way to sensitive.

 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Rlad

[Rlad]

20 hours ago, Drybonz said:

This is probably just me not understanding exactly what this means, but haven't the viewing options always shown the same category for each platform?

The default was always box front, sometimes it would revert to box front even if you'd changed it.

Now you can select the default here

And then you get this option added

[Rlad]

On 6/3/2026 at 9:45 AM, Retrofrogg said:

The double jewel case doesn't appear when you go to edit platform then 3D model settings. It's in the list, but when you select it the preview window is blank.

Confirmed, it does appear if you tick 'Use plain text instead of Clear Logo'

[Drybonz]

21 minutes ago, Rlad said:

The default was always box front, sometimes it would revert to box front even if you'd changed it.

Ok... thanks.  So, if you set the default you can still change them individually?

[Rlad]

19 minutes ago, Drybonz said:

Ok... thanks.  So, if you set the default you can still change them individually?

Yeah, same as before.