X-bEnCH - The Amiga Game Launcher (Whdload, exe, ..) and more official topic.

[JimNeray]

Hi Attila.

I'm still working on X-bEnCh but i'm working on some cools others Amiga Projects too so now my main problem is the time ... Yes i need more time !

But don't be afraid some new releases of X-bEnCh will be availables before christmas !

[attila06]

Cool Jim,
I' ll wait with impatience .

[JimNeray]

Ok so now i've much more time ...

So here is the release 0.74 of X-bEnCh : http://www.jimneray.com

I now work on a pure 68000/7mhz B2000 so now all is really optimized and tested for this setup.

What's new ?

- Fixed the OCS/ECS blue bug color in the init screen.
- Start a bit faster.
- New display refresh method for the launcher now as fast as light on a simple 68000/7.
- Mouse pointer is now blanked.
- Fixed the slow display of the Starfield menu on 68000/68010
- Now correctly switch off the display on the menu screen when needed.
- Minors bugs fixeds.

[subone]

Hi JimNeray,
thanks a lot for this update of your great tool !!
Good job u made.

I have a weird bug : when i switch between the lists with the TAB key, the previous list name is always displayed so the list name (with the number of files in list) becomes unreadable.
Is it serious Doc ?

[hansel75]

Hi, i to am having the same issue as subone, i also had this issue on the last version of xbench that i tried recently.

It appears to scan all the games ok, but when in the games list, i can't access anything but the first list. When i try to change to another letter it reverts back to the first list.

Han.

[JimNeray]

@subone @hansel75: Ok thanks for this return. The list name bug is already fixed for the next release.

@hansel75: Not sure to understand your 2nd problem. It seems to be a really strange issue. If i rightly understand you, after the setup is successfully finished, in the lancher each time you're using a key to jump to another part of the listing, you come back to the start of this list ?

[hansel75]

Hi JimNeray! I am still having the same issue, basically i have done the scan of the games and it picks them up ok. I will try explain the issue i am having, it a strange one.

When i go into the launcher and try to scroll through the list of games, every time i try to go to a different page it reverts back to the first page of the list(A).
So if i scrolled down the list in A, when i get to the bottom and the 2nd page of the A list should come up, it doesn't, it reverts back to the top of page 1 of A.

And if i press a letter, example- b, it will show the first page/list of b, but if i try to scroll to the next page of the b listing, it goes back to the first page(A) as well.
It will do this for any letter category i try, i basically can't see past the first page/list of any letter as it always goes back to the first page of A.

The strange thing is my demos launcher lists work fine and i can scroll from a-z ok.

Maybe it's an issue with my whdload games, Also does it matter how you have the game folders setup, i have them in the default a-z sorted folders, but as mentioned the game scan worked fine and picked up all the game i have on my hd.

Also sorry for my late reply, and thanks for your great work.

Han.

[JimNeray]

@hansel75: Many thanks for your explain. Now i clearly understand what's your issue but not why you have it.

Have you try this X-bench cli command?

resetxset

The resetxset command was created to reset all the previous setup to have a clean new install. You must set and scan your hd again after this command.

If you've already try this can you please send me all the files that you have in your xbench/prefs/ drawer ?

Thanks for your help to debug xbench

[attila06]

Hello Jim,

a next release expected ?

[hansel75]

Originally Posted by JimNeray

@hansel75: Many thanks for your explain. Now i clearly understand what's your issue but not why you have it.

Have you try this X-bench cli command?
The resetxset command was created to reset all the previous setup to have a clean new install. You must set and scan your hd again after this command.

If you've already try this can you please send me all the files that you have in your xbench/prefs/ drawer ?

Thanks for your help to debug xbench

Hi JimNeray, i tried that resetxset command and cleared all my lists and settings, then i started from scratch but still have the same issue as mentioned above.

I have attached a rar of the contents of my XB prefs folder for you to look at.

Also of note, when i was rescanning my games and demos folders, i had trouble getting anything to detect. I'm not sure what had happened but i eventually got it to scan ok again. But the issues i have with the game launcher list is still happening, it always reverts back to the top of A each time i try to scroll the page. The demo listing works fine though.

Thanks for the help and i look forward to your next update.

Han.

[Turran]

Crashes if you point it to a folder with 2500 WHDload games =) Not unexpected. hehe

Edit: Setting MUsic to No in config has no effect it seems. Still plays.

Edit2: Excellent launcher I must say. Very good work =) Thanks.

Edit3: Ran if from clean startup with an A1200 8MB and it managed "Just added 2596 files to the list" =) Sweeeeet

Edit4: However, I can no longer use left and right arrow to switch pages. I can, however, press the first letter and get to that page. Scrolling down to the end pops it right back up to the first page though.

[Turran]

Originally Posted by vjkaos

This is my Xbench startup-script:

; X-Bench Startup

C:SetPatch QUIET
C:Env-Handler

C:AntiClick
Cd Work:Xb
Execute >NIL: XbEnCH.exe

Hope someone can help me clear this up...

I'm using classicWB so I just edit System:System/BMenu/Menus/BootMenu and add another entry for C:Execute S:xbench-Startup

S:xbench-Startup contains the quote above. I've also tried just CD'n and executing XbEnCH.exe in it.

When I try it (hold down right mouse), it crashes. Screen fades to black and .. crash.
Software failure Error: 8000 0004 Task: 0023FD48

If I run CLI startup, I can execute S:xbench-startup just fine and it starts.

What am I doing wrong here?


In workbench, I can start XbEnCH.exe fine as well. Its only when it has its own entry in the buttonmenu that it crashes.

edit: Works fine in the real amiga. Problem is only in WinUAE for some reason

Edit2: solved further down

[hansel75]

Originally Posted by Turran

Edit: Setting MUsic to No in config has no effect it seems. Still plays.

Edit4: However, I can no longer use left and right arrow to switch pages. I can, however, press the first letter and get to that page. Scrolling down to the end pops it right back up to the first page though.

Hi, i also cannot disable the music in the menu.

Also your no.4 point about the game launcher menu jumping back to the start of the A list each time you try to scroll the screen, that's the same issue i had mentioned above so it seems it might be some kind of bug.

Also i am wondering if Xbench does not like large game lists, as i normally have around 2000 games in my list. I might run some tests using smaller game folder/lists, around 100 games for example and see if that fixes it.

And of note with xb0.74b, the same issues happen for me with both my real amiga setup, and the winuae emu as well.

What is also strange here is that i tried reverting back to a clean version of xb0.73b and xb0.72b and i also had the same issues with the game listing reverting back to A all the time.

When i used these older versions a few months back i didn't have any issues back then but do now for some reason, and i have had no major change with my amiga setup since then either, plus i always do a clean install of Xbench each time.

I currently have xb0.74b on atm and have reset all values and rescanned the lists etc. It's a great launcher and much appreciated, if only i could browse my game lists fully then it would be perfect

Han.

PS: I would also like a clear guide on how to startup XB on launch through the Classic WB boot menu before WB starts. Which files do i edit and with what etc..

[Turran]

Yes, if only it did not jump back to the top on, what we presume are, very big lists, it'd be even more awesome. I have a 2nd list of demos and that is only about 300 or so. That works fine.

Another suggestion would be: you can currently press the first letter and it will jump to the first item in the list that starts with that name. Thats very nice. What I'd like is something similar to what windows does. If you are fast, you can keep typing. So a 1-2 second delay in which it tries to find more.

Example:
Trying to find Elvira today
I press E and have to scroll down. If I type El it jumps to the item that starts with L.
What I'd like: If I press el within 2 seconds or so, it goes down to el. If I wait to long between keypresses, it goes to L as usual.

Another suggestion: if the preload value is greater then free RAM, toss up a "are you sure" or something =)

[Turran]

Ok, here is a guide for ClassicWB that I use now. Seems to work both on real amiga and WinUAE.

In Workbench, click Run / Settings / ButtonMenu
Go to Project / Open
If you just scroll down, you should see the "Menus" drawer. If not, go to SYS:System/BMenu/Menus. Open file "BootMenu" and you should see the menu that pops up when you hold right mouse button on bootup.

Click "New Item":
Item Text: X-Bench (whatever you like)
DOS Command: C:Execute S:xbench-Sequence
(remember to hit enter after you type for it to "stick").
Select Project / Save

Open a Shell and type
S:
copy CLIboot-sequence xbench-Sequence

ed xbench-Sequence
scroll to the bottow. Before the last "NewCLI" line, add (depending on path to xbench):

Cd SYS:Programs/Xb
C:Execute XbEnCH.exe

Leave the NewCLI line at the bottom if you like. That way you get a nice shell if you close Xbench at the cost of more memory usage. Remove it on low memory machines.

I'm sure you can modify your new xbench-Startup file to save more memory but this is a quick way to get it running. You can now restart and hold down the right mouse button and X-Bench should be in there.

Update: The "music: no" in settings is only the music in the launcher list. It does not effect main menu or config menu music. You'd think you could remove the .mod files in the "data" folder but then it does not start at all =)

[hansel75]

Thanks Turran! i will give this a go later on!

But the game launcher menu problems were both having kind of ruin the xbench experience at the moment, hopefully a new release will be out soon.

Han.

Update1: Turran, i just tested your cwb startup menu method and it works fine, so thanks again for that.

Update2: I also have found a workaround for the game menu launcher issue reverting back to A all the time, and it does appear that the problem is related to the size of your games folders/list and xbench not liking all your games in one list.
I have around 2000 whdload games that i have in a-z folders, and what i did was split the games in half into 2 folders with around 1000 games in each.
The folders are called Games1(a-k games) and Games2(l-z games). I then added 2 lists into the Xbench setup, one list for game1 and another for game2 and i then rescanned my games.
It appears to have fixed the issue mentioned above, i can now browse all the games in 2 separate lists without the list reverting back to A each time
It's not a perfect solution having to use 2x game lists, but it works! It appears that Xbench doesn't like one large single game list for some reason.

[Turran]

Hansel75: Thanks. I'll try that method for now, hoping for a fix.

Really like X-bEnCH more then, for example, TinyLauncher since it can progress through sub folders instead of having to specify each one separate.

[JimNeray]

Hi all !

Many thanks for your hardtest of xbench. A new release will be available soonly but i've many things to finish before releasing it.

I've find the stupid coding mistack who's making listing bigger than 1920 entry to fail. This will be fixed in the incoming release. (New theorical limit is upped to more than 470000 entry for a single listing )

@hansel75: Thanks for your files !

[JimNeray]

Happy New Year to you all!

To start this new year I am proud to announce the release of X-bEnCh 0.8 Alpha.

You can download it on: www.jimneray.com

Please remember that this release is just an Alpha release. I've a lot of things that are not yet implemented but i've released it because the last release was from 2 month ago ... i'm still working on it and some new release may come realy sooner. Hope you will enjoy this release !

What's new ?

- Black lines closing effect added to the init logo.
- No more credits scroll text; now have a rotating text on the menu.
- New VBL sync more smoother.
- Fixed the repeat delay.
- 3d effect added to menu texts.
- New loading screen with a cool parallax effect.
- List name bug fixed.
- Now the listings fatters than 1920 files are working fines.
- Xsetup code heavily reworked.
- Startup tab added to the setup.
- Added the Del key switch option.
- Added an option to choose from where start Xbench (menu, launcher, cli)
- Fixed the ugly 3d effect in the setup.
- Many bugs fixs and various optimizations.

[attila06]

Hummm

Jim it doesn't works for me.
Right it's OK for me, just dezziped it with lha on the Amiga