Cache-LB

[Gaz70]

Is the folder LaunchBox\Images\Cache-LB supposed to be a temporary holding place that's cleared on exit?

I currently have just under 10000 images in it.

[JoeViking245]

46 minutes ago, Gaz70 said:

Is the folder LaunchBox\Images\Cache-LB supposed to be a temporary holding place that's cleared on exit?

I currently have just under 10000 images in it.

It does not clear it on exit.  And 10,000 does seem like a lot. Unless you have (at least) 10,000 games in your collection.

You can safely remove those files then start LaunchBox. 

Note though, when you select a platform, it will rebuild those files for that platform. Select a different platform and it builds them for that platform. And so on. You may see a slight delay while they're being created. But when done, you'll 'be back to smooth sailing'.  The "delay" will be dependent on the LB version you're on. I believe it was v14+ made improvements to this.

Another note is, if you change the Image Group for a platform, the cache for that platform will get rebuilt based on the new image type/group.  If you have "experimented" with changing the Image Group for your platforms, the cache files may have become additive.  e.g. if your platform has 50 games and it was set to box-front and you changed it to clear logo, you'd now have 100 (50 + 50) images in the cache folder.

[Gaz70]

All the images appear to be stored in LaunchBox\Images\<platform>\Box - Front (example)\North America etc.

So why would some of the images be in cache-LB as well? Why does it not just use the folder they are downloaded to? This just seems to take up unnecessary disk space?

[JoeViking245]

12 minutes ago, Gaz70 said:

All the images appear to be stored in LaunchBox\Images\<platform>\Box - Front (example)\North America etc.

Correct. The full-size images are stored there.

 

22 minutes ago, Gaz70 said:

So why would some of the images be in cache-LB as well? Why does it not just use the folder they are downloaded to? This just seems to take up unnecessary disk space?

You'll notice the cache files are much smaller than the original image files.

When populating the main section in LaunchBox with images, it's much faster to load a several kb (cached) image than it is to load a [up to] couple MB (original) image. And that's just one image of the number of games you may have in the particular platform.   Also navigating large sized image files [unnecessarily] can be clunky.

 

Keep in mind, the images (whether in the cache folder or their original location) get loaded into your computer's memory for displaying.

e.g. My Sega Genesis Box-3D folder itself is 1.09GB (1026 images).  Where-as my Cache-LB folder is [only] 320MB (13,522 images)

Bringing it to a load-time/HD space/RAM cost benefit.

[Gaz70]

Ah that makes sense. Thank you!