Spectabis | Advanced Game Launcher (Frontend)

[FaithLV]

CAUTION: Spectabis currently only supports PCSX2 up to 1.6 (stable). Later development versions will crash due to breaking changes in the emulator.
If this is a deal breaker, I suggest checking out the new (cross-platform) version here. Please keep in mind it's in early stages of development, but you are welcome to play around with it and leave feedback in the GitHub issues section.



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This a frontend (a game launcher) for PCSX2.

• Per-game configuration
  
• Automatic boxart scraping (from .iso files)
  
• Automatic boxart scraping using file names for your .gz and .cso games! (please name your files appropriately)
  
• .gz, .bin, .cso support (duh)
  
• Manual game adding, drag-n-drop and directory scanning
  
• Graphics, sound & input configuration from game settings (also shaders)
  
• Fancy page-based material design UI, color scheme settings and a couple of smooth animations
  
• There's also a clunky and basic search function (enable in settings)
  
• While TheGamesDB still remains, you can now use GiantBomb API to get boxart images faster and more reliably (needs an API key)
  
• Variable framerate & other stuff
  
• Launch game profiles from command-line arguments
  

.NET Framework 4.5 is required!



Download (Windows Only) : https://github.com/FaithLV/WPF_Spectabis/releases
PCSX2-Bonus Converter : https://github.com/FaithLV/SpectabisProf...verter.zip





If you find any issues or have a suggestion.










Thanks to:

• Pixro for the logo and drawings
  
• Cyberfox for porting GiantBombAPI to .NET 4.5 and moral support
  

[Arcadius]

Decided to try this out today, looks like no one took a notice and left anything for you yet.

I know it's really knew and all, but I'll add some thoughts from what I experienced.

I used 006 and it didn't save the games list or anything, so that's still an issue :3.

Things I'd like to see, ability to drag and drop ISO's into the program and just get the art right away or without art and add it ourselves.

I don't like how it goes into fullscreen automagically and skips the bios loading. I know not everyone likes the Full Boot, but I always use it, so that's a huge negative in my opinion.

It'd also be nice if instead of asking us to configure the games when we add the ISO, use the current PCSX2 configuration as a base (PCSX2Bonus does this, super neat). That way if something needs to change, I can change it later on.

I don't think I saw the PCSX2 program either when I ran a game, that should still be somewhere, for quick modifications just in-case. Not everyone will know what to fix in their per-game configurations, I definitely don't know for each of my games and require experimenting if something is amiss.

It's a good start, I think, it looks nice and has neat effects when you click on the boxes. The Game Mode/Configuration Mode is a little weird, right clicking would be quicker and straight to the point with some options there too.

Best of luck on making this front end work though, I'll keep an eye out for the big updates.

[FaithLV]

Decided to try this out today, looks like no one took a notice and left anything for you yet.

I know it's really knew and all, but I'll add some thoughts from what I experienced.

I used 006 and it didn't save the games list or anything, so that's still an issue :3.

Things I'd like to see, ability to drag and drop ISO's into the program and just get the art right away or without art and add it ourselves.

I don't like how it goes into fullscreen automagically and skips the bios loading. I know not everyone likes the Full Boot, but I always use it, so that's a huge negative in my opinion.

It'd also be nice if instead of asking us to configure the games when we add the ISO, use the current PCSX2 configuration as a base (PCSX2Bonus does this, super neat). That way if something needs to change, I can change it later on.

I don't think I saw the PCSX2 program either when I ran a game, that should still be somewhere, for quick modifications just in-case. Not everyone will know what to fix in their per-game configurations, I definitely don't know for each of my games and require experimenting if something is amiss.

It's a good start, I think, it looks nice and has neat effects when you click on the boxes. The Game Mode/Configuration Mode is a little weird, right clicking would be quicker and straight to the point with some options there too.

Best of luck on making this front end work though, I'll keep an eye out for the big updates.

Thanks for your input. When I have time I will try to implement your suggestions.
About saving, could you check if there are folders in Resources/configs for games that are not saving?
About automatic art, I tried to implement it, but I had problems. I will look into it, but I can't make any promises.

[Arcadius]

Well, off the bat, I do remember seeing my game in the configs folder, but it was kind of weird. I used the dot hack game which is titled .hack//INFECTION, in the configs folder it created .hack and then inside that was INFECTION or something and then the inis and art for the game. I'll try another one pre-edit and see how it works (FFX for simplicities sake).

Automatic art isn't a necessity, I have all the artwork I use for the games I have on-hand anyhow, but drag and drop would be really cool, or something like PCSX2Bonus where you tell it where the ISO's are and it'll just load them all at once; if you go this route, it'd be nice if Spectabis always checks the folders for updates on launch, PCSX2Bonus doesn't and that's a little annoying.

Pre Edit: Final Fantasy X saved successfully into Spectabis. I have a feeling because .hack//INFECTION is using a forward slash, your program might be making an additional folder and making it impossible to save the game contents.

Also I didn't realize, but it asks you to configure the game everytime with a blank slate of PCSX2; I think that's something that should absolutely get changed and instead use the base PCSX2 inis as a general configuration. It'd be a nightmare doing this for many games all at once :3.

And yeah, for the .hack game it does this .hack/infection/contents, instead of what should probably be .hack//infection/contents.

Thanks for working on this, I'd love to see it get really good and popular! =)

[FaithLV]

Updated Spectabis!
https://github.com/FaithLV/PCSX2-Spectab.../tag/0.0.7

Fixed issue with titles containing certain characters creating folders in wrong locations
Removed first game setup, when adding a new game
Removed Game/Config modes
Added game emulation configuration (fullscreen, fullboot and nogui) for each game
Per game configuration can be accessed by right clicking on a game
New first time setup (code is ready, but current image is just a placeholder)
Ironed out a few bugs

Still no drag & drop, but I'll look into it soon. Thanks for your feedback.

[Arcadius]

That's a pretty huge update! Wow very nice! I'll check it out sometime today/tomorrow and see how it works.

Edit : I spent some time, realizing it's source code only, so I attempted to compile it, something I've never done before and am really ignorant/dumb in... so it didn't work out for me and I gave up :3. I'll just continue to wait as you work on this.

[FaithLV]

That's a pretty huge update! Wow very nice! I'll check it out sometime today/tomorrow and see how it works.

Edit : I spent some time, realizing it's source code only, so I attempted to compile it, something I've never done before and am really ignorant/dumb in... so it didn't work out for me and I gave up :3. I'll just continue to wait as you work on this.

No, I'm an idiot, I forgot to upload the binary. Will upload asap.

Edit: It's up now!

[Arcadius]

I just tried it out, still having issues with .hack//INFECTION and I ran into an unhandled exception when I wanted to add Ar Tonelico - Melody of Elemia.

I think changing the initial screen when you boot up Spectabis for the first time and it asks you for the PCSX2 directory should be changed; that intense yellow on white font isn't the best color combo, even if it's only seen for a little bit, and I love yellow too <3.

I also tried the fullboot option and PCSX2 threw this at me, maybe a typo on your end? "PCSX2 Message - Unknown long option 'fullbootG'"

I'll pastebin the error and details for you, maybe it'll help? http://pastebin.com/KGUjjgFs

I like the addition of right clicking, that's really nice and makes things nice and quick, but I think you should add a "confim" or "apply" or "ok" button to though screens because it's a little weird to have to "x" out of the Spectabis window to get back to the main window :3.

All in all, I'm sure you're working on it, looking forward to you ironing out the bugs.

[FaithLV]

Yeah, I'm away for a few days and writing it on a computer which can't run pcsx2. When I'm home, I'll try to test everything with an actual emulator.

Edit: Fixed problems with .hack//INFECTION and fullboot emulation setting. Next release will probably won't include new features as I'll be trying to fix some issues.

[FaithLV]

An update, finally tested on a real machine (for a few minutes) running PCSX2!

It is advised, to remove existing game profiles and re-add them.

New Features

A new, eye friendly first time setup
When adding a new game, existing configuration is copied from PCSX2 folder
Video, sound & controller options can be edited from Game Settings window for each game
Added launch option to disable speedhacks

Fixed Issues

Fixed issues with certain game titles which used simbols like / . \ @ - etc.
No exception thrown, when theGamesDB is unreachable
No exception thorwn, if game is not found in theGamesDB
No longer loads invalid game profiles
Fixed launch options (fullboot etc.)
Other small fixes

Known Issues

When changing game box art, image refreshes only when clicked on it
"Add Directory" button is shown, but is not finished and not usable
Exceptions get thrown, when needed files are missing, this will get fixed soon, but I want to sleep
Night Mode is not working (fixed in latest commits)

Github: https://github.com/FaithLV/PCSX2-Spectab.../tag/0.0.8