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

[markpaterson]

Thanks! This is all super helpful.

Re: the list stuff, is this documented anywhere else? I scoured the Amiga Guide file but found nothing that pointed me in the direction of how to correctly edit the list file and how you must also increment the number on the launchers.prf file – no wonder I was getting gurus on my early experiments with the list file! I did the calculation and found that I had to change it to 139. Is there any reason I shouldn't just make it something higher, like 200? That would give me a safety margin to manually add a few more titles before I need to worry about it.

Originally Posted by spudje

Game names
The games names you can tweak by editing the "list files" (e.g. list1) in xbench/prefs
For each game there are 3 lines:

• 1st line: folder/game name (game identifier let's say), let's call it <game_name> for reference below. The game's folder and <game_name>.exe or <game_name>.slave needs to be in this exact format
• 2nd line: Screen name of the game, so here you can have spaces etc.
• 3rd line: full path to the game

Note that in the file launchers.prf the numbers of games per list should be at least as high as you have games in your individual list files, otherwise xbench gurus. E.g. if you have 301 lines in file list1 in launchers/prf line 4 should say (at least) "100" since (301-1 (the version string at the top of the list file))/3.

[Zarnal]

Originally Posted by markpaterson

Additionally, I've noticed about 10% of my WHDLoad games do not show up in the Launcher. I have the list type set to WHDLoad. I've tried the default fast scan and the full scan. While scanning, it will occasionally say "Object Not Found". There seems to be no correlation between the games that are missing (they are just downloaded from whdownload.com), so I have no idea what the cause could be.

Same thing. With a new installation. But with many "Object not found". Solution: Create a subdirectory for your games and move it inside and rescan.



If DH0:Games/ ---> errors



If DH0:Games/Games/ ---> ok

[spudje]

Most I figured out with trial and error, no documentation, except for the images info, that is described somewhere. Maybe there's some info in early posts inside this thread too. I think it works, setting the number quite a bit higher in the launchers.prf. I would say, just try it

Originally Posted by markpaterson

Thanks! This is all super helpful.

Re: the list stuff, is this documented anywhere else? I scoured the Amiga Guide file but found nothing that pointed me in the direction of how to correctly edit the list file and how you must also increment the number on the launchers.prf file – no wonder I was getting gurus on my early experiments with the list file! I did the calculation and found that I had to change it to 139. Is there any reason I shouldn't just make it something higher, like 200? That would give me a safety margin to manually add a few more titles before I need to worry about it.

[Graham Humphrey]

I've been using X-Bench for a while (and registered) and recently installed the new version. I noticed the "Object Not Found" error when scanning seems to happen for the first game in each folder - I have my games split up alphabetically. So my path is 'DH1:Games/A' etc. I tried putting a further subfolder in between so it became 'DH1:Games/Games/A' but still no dice. Do I have to create a subfolder for each folder my games reside in?


I guess another alternative would be to 'clone' one of the games in each folder and rename it so it's first in the list - that way it would only miss out the 'dummy' entry. That's the theory anyway...


Either way, hopefully this will be fixed soon - it looks like it's something that can be worked around, but it does add a bit of extra work. I am taking my Amiga to a local gaming convention in April so I do need to make sure all my games are easily accessible to anyone who sits down to have a go.

[lineacero]

Good morning everyone.
The images, screenshots, boxart in which folder do I have to put them so that they can be seen in the menu once I scan the game hard drives?

[spudje]

Maybe just go back 1 page in his thread

[PerryRhodan]

Nice games launcher. Thanks!

[cookieninja]

Nice launcher, but the whole thing about missing some games is a killer bug! Is it not possible to implement some debug logging to help us identify the problem?

It should be pretty straight forward to implement, no need to be clever just log the specific folder scanned where "object not found" error occurs, followed by a log of all the important variables and their values. Then people like me, who experience the problem, can troubleshoot pretty quickly what's going on. I don't mind helping with proper, logical approach to troubleshooting, but I haven't got time for guesses and bodges, sorry :-s If the launcher doesn't work properly & I'm given no help to fix things, then I'm just gonna move on and forget about registering or encouraging anyone else to use it

[Wilhood]

I saw somebody has got this launcher working on the Amiga mini.

[enigma776]

Thought I would give this another go, got it to load this time but now I have hit another wall. When I got to setup it just locks up, total freeze and have to reboot winuae. Any idea on why or how to fix it?

[DDNI]

X-Bench running well here on my CD32. Thanks Jim.
Did anyone ever create a screenshot pack for it?

[TCD]

Originally Posted by DDNI

Did anyone ever create a screenshot pack for it?

There are some on Turran's server: http://ftp2.grandis.nu/turran/FTP/Co...arious/XBench/

[DDNI]

Brilliant thanks, I will take a look at that.

Installed those pics. Seems that black is showing as white?
I read this from another post in this thread:
"Game pictures In xbench/datas/db/pix you can add screenshots, in the format <game_name>_1.iff. in 80x64 pixels, 32 colors. 1st color = black, 2nd color = white."

Any idea if it is possible to swap 1st and 2nd colour?

[ei8ht]

Hi guys, really like this launcher and got it to work. I also found the screenshot pack on Turran-FTP. The only thing I could't find, was a pack for the game details. The files which are placed in the db folder. Does anybody know if someone alrady did some work and were I can find it?

Thx in advance
Cheers ei8ht

[moulder]

Hi, I've installed newest Xbench on my OS3.1 (classic workbench). Xbench scanned my hdd and found all WHDload games and demos. But when i run any game it shows Xbench loading screen but after that there in nothing, like it freezed. What could be the casue? My xbench settings are all default.

[Hercules]

Cannot register !

Been wanted to register for a keyfile, but authors site is still under construction. Tried emailing via his e-mail and no reply. That was weeks ago. Maybe somebody can point me in the right direction so I can finally register for a registeration key somehow?

[mfilos]

Last email I got from Jim was on 12/2021 of the 1.2 version.
I PMed you his email in case you had it wrong.

[Flimbo]

Works great on my CD32 with 3.1WB. Xbench 1.1 appeared to have some issues with BetterWB but these appear to have been resolved with Xbench 1.2.

Two issues as reported elsewhere in this thread -

1. I want to register my software but the website is still under construction. I have donated 10 euros on the software page.

2. Has anybody created a set of images for their games? Be grateful if they could be shared to save me the pain and misery.

Once again thanks for the work put into this brilliant piece of software, it has revolutionised my CD32 gaming experience.

[Rochabian]

Has the use of manual list changed ?

I use list3 to have a video list, it is set to manual in launcher setup and the list is called Videos

Then i edited the list3 file in the prefs folder like this :

Video 1
Command line to launch video 1
Video 2
Command line to launch video 2
Etc...

but the list 3 called "Videos" doesn't appear in launcher with abnormal starting delay of the Launcher

Is it still the right way to setup manual list ?

[JimNeray]

Hi there.

I'd like to wish you all the best for this new year 2024; I'd like to take this opportunity to give you some news about X-bEnCh;

X-bEnCh registration keys are now available exclusively from the Micromiga webshop at this address: https://www.micromiga.com/produit/x-bench-regkey

X-bEnch development has resumed since the end of last year, after a big break and a hard disk crash that caused me to lose part of what I'd been working on.

I had originally planned to publish an "X-Mas release" by the end of 2023, but in the end I didn't have the time and above all I didn't want to make the same mistake as with version 1.2: publishing something too quickly and then realizing afterwards that there are so many bugs that it's pretty unusable.

Version 1.2.1 should, I hope, arrive soon; 3 internal versions have already been distributed to registered users and a 4th should be sent out in the next few days.

I don't communicate much, but I do take the time to read and re-read each and every one of your comments on forums, on facebook or in the emails you send me. I try to reproduce each bug and bring a solution.

I want to make this public update a key version, just as 0.94F was in its day.

Thank you all for your patience, passion and unfailing support.


Cheers

Jim