HexLauncher Custom Vita

VitaHex Launcher Custom
VitaHex Launcher Custom
	File:Vitahexlaunchercustom.jpg
General
Author	BlackSheepBoy69
Type	Title Launchers
Version	1.0.1
License	Mixed
Last Updated	2022/09/06
Links
	Download
	Website
	Source

VitaHex Launcher Custom is a revamp mod for [[Hexflow Launcher Vita |VitaHEX's 3D coverflow style]] launcher for PS Vita.

What is VitaHex Launcher Custom?

Display and launch your games and homebrews in style.

HexFlow Launcher features a 3d user interface to display your games with their box art and supports many customization options like custom covers, backgrounds, and - in v0.6 and above - one custom category.

Launching a game/app from HexFlow Launcher will close the launcher automaticaly without asking.

Important

For PSP bubbles generated by Adrenaline Bubbles Manager you must set the value of BubbleID to TitleID in the settings menu of ABM tool. In v0.9 and above, PS1 Bubble ID doesn't matter because it's scanned in binary during the startup.

Subfolders and psp categories plugin are not supported.

AutoBoot

If you want to auto-launch HexFlow Launcher every time your PS Vita boots up you can use the Autoboot Vita plugin by Rinnegatamante.

Controls

Navigate your library using the DPad or the Left Stick or with the Touch Screen.

R/L triggers: Skip 5 items

Select+R/L triggers: Skip by alphabet

Cross: Select/Launch game/app

Square: Change Category

Triangle: Game Details

Circle: Change View/Cancel

Start: Settings menu

DPad Up/Down: Access SwitchView UI menu

In v1.0 and above, DPad Up/Down can either be used to access SwitchView UI menu, or to change category if either of these options are enabled in the Settings menu

Custom Covers

Place your custom covers in "ux0:/data/HexFlow/COVERS/PSVITA/"

Cover images must be in png format and the file name must match the App ID or the App Name of each app (recomended resolution 256x256px). In v0.9 and above, games in the PS1 category can have cover png's named to match the App ID, or the App Name, or the PSX Serial as found in the triangle menu. Sample vita cover image

Download Covers and Backgrounds

In v0.3 and above, covers can be downloaded automatically from the settings menu (Start button). You can also download covers and backgrounds manually from the link below. A big thanks to astuermer for his contribution.

~~https://github.com/andiweli/hexflow-covers~~ (v0.9.1 and below)
https://github.com/jimbob4000/hexflow-covers/ (v1.0 and above)

Custom Background

Place your Background.png or Background.jpg image in "ux0:/data/HexFlow/" (recomended resolution 1280x720px or less). Some custom backgrounds are available HERE. In v0.9 and above, these sample custom backgrounds are included by default.

Custom Category

In v0.6 and above, take the applist.dat file in "ux0:data/HexFlow/" and rename it to customsort.dat. This will generate a 5th category - "Custom" - and you can put what games you want or reorder it within Vitashell, or on your PC in a unix-compatible text editor such as gVim Easy. Windows notepad won't work.

Custom Music

Place your Music.ogg or Music.mp3 file in "ux0:data/HexFlow/" (music will play automaticaly when the "Sounds" option is enabled)

Media

HEX-Flow Launcher 0.3 - PS Vita Preview (VitaHEX Games)

Screenshots

User Feature Requests

Feature requests and "issues" posted on Retroflow & HexFlow Launcher are considered for being added to this list. Mostly no feature is impossible because there are experienced coders involved in the HexLauncher Custom project, but this entire project is just for me (only posted publicly out of the "generousity of my heart") so only features that I like will get added.

If you'd like to try coding up a feature (which may be faster than having me do it), then take your editted sourcecode and name it to "index.lua" and put it in like this: ux0:/app/HXLC00001/index.lua

...Or put it directly into the vpk (openable with Winrar) to replace the index.lua there.

The great feature of lua files is they can open in a simple text editor such as Notepad, and you don't need VitaSDK.

If your version works out, send it here as a github "pull request" and I'll see about adding your feature to this project so it can stay as the app updates. Otherwise you'll basicly have to wait for next release and hope I added a feature you want.

Planned Features for Upcoming Updates

Rolling cache (costs ~0.5s startup time) ✔️Done, coming in v1.1
Optimized Fonts for even faster startup and even better performance. (saves ~0.5s startup time) ✔️Done, coming in v1.1
RetroFlow ✔️Done, coming in v1.1
RetroFlow: option to combine "PCE-type categories" - PCE, PCECD, TG16, TGCD ✔️Done, coming in v1.1
RetroFlow: option to combine "Gameboy-type categories" - GBA, GBC, GB ✔️Done, coming in v1.1
RetroFlow: option to combine "Arcade Machine-type categories" - FBA, MAME2000, MAME2003, NeoGeo ✔️Done, coming in v1.1
Categories: Dreamcast ("Flycast")✔️Done, coming in v1.1
Categories: Nintendo DS ✔️Done, hidden feature in upcoming v1.1
Easier way to rename games
RetroFlow: "MD5/CDC32 ROM scraping" so you don't have to rename ROM's?
RetroFlow: change ROM directory - as in Retroflow v4.0.0+ (low priority)
Ability to use Adrenaline Bubble Manager, Adrenaline Launcher, and Retroarch for PSP/PS1 where possible, all at once if you so feel like it. ✔️ framework for this - "pspemu_translation_table" is included in v0.9+ but Adrenaline Launcher capabilities are not added yet, only this framework.
Categories: Android ("YoYo Loader")
Categories: RPGMaker XP ("MKXP") ASAP.
Categories: RPGMaker 2000/2003 ("EasyRPG" - low priority)
Categories: Pico8 (low priority, easy to program)
Categories: ScummVM (low priority)
Categories: Playstation Mobile (low priority)
Categories: remote play category (low priority)
Categories: recently played
Categories: most played (maybe)
Categories: favorites
Either new setting "Jump to last played game on startup: ON/OFF" or new startup category: "ALL - *JUMP TO LAST PLAYED*" ✔️Done, trying to decide which of the two ways it should be implemented. This will probably also be released alongside "Recently Played".
"Pro Triangle Menu": add all these settings to the triangle menu: Open a game's trophies (via trophy app URI call), Open a game's manual (not sure how to code this), send game save data to a PSTV, set individual app overclock via PSVShell and the "L..." overclocking program profile writer. AKA the ability to launch an app at 500 overclock through triangle menu. ✔️Only the overclocker is done but the others are planned to come with it if possible. Coming to the public release when Retroflow integration is added to public HexLauncher Custom release
Select opens up a sidebar similar to Vitashell's triangle menu, it will have "search" and little checkboxes to only show games of a certain genre ex: "Puzzles" and "Mario", with "Mario Picross" being in both. Inspired by "Dig - Emulator Front-End" for android.
Absolute full translation for everything, including msg boxes (like retroflow)(easy but low priority)
RetroFlow: option to automatically colorize Game Boy (non-color) games that were officially retroactively given color when played on a GameBoy Color such as Super Mario Land, Super Mario Land 2, QIX, Hyper Lode Runner, DrMario, Metroid 2, etc)(low priority and this will be hard to program).
Extra smooth cover size adjusting, like the XBox "Aurora" coverflow app, you can see it at about 9 minute, 15 seconds into this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqvruf8q3J0 ✔️ There is a janky unreleased implementation of this, but it will probably be scrapped in favor of stealing the smooth scroll code from WiiFlow.
Launchbox view, TN-X view, Wii view, and "List View" with a list of text of game names and maybe 1 cover?
"Advanced options" button at the bottom so start menu can fit more settings? ...or just a RetroFlow style multi-tier settings menu?
Setting for "livearea replacement mode: enables a loading screen image similar to the Enso "Molecule" image. Maybe have it set up autoboot for you, too? This will only be added if "advanced options" button is added. (easy)
Setting to cycle and/or shuffle background musics as in RetroFlow v4.0.1+
Setting to change the category text color (on the top left of the screen) for when you're using a bright background (low priority)
Setting to let you use the touchscreen to touch the "X Launch" on the bottom right of the screen to launch a game starting 1 second after you start HexLauncher Custom. (low priority). Any other touch features probably won't be added because when the screen gets wet it touches random places for you and also because I'm a lazy.
Cover downloads for homebrew, ex: CoolFiverIsABabe's homebrew cover archive. They might have to override to Vita if a cover is found, in order to look right.
The ability to quickly add an app to "Custom" (through triangle menu?). High priority if "rolling refresh" is added.
❌video/media category. Seems like an over-reach, just use MVPlayer.
❌uninstalling or otherwise altering any games (such as in OneMenu). It might mess up someone's Vita.

Known bugs

It freezes/crashes every now and then, but it doesn't seem to happen while "sounds" are set to "Off". ✔️Fix coming in v1.1 - it was an "Out of Memory"-type crash related to the uncompressed audio.
All the above bugs are also present in VitaHEX's HexFlow Launcher 0.5
Suspending sometimes causes a crash if you're using music.
New glitch in v1 and above: hitting "download all PSP covers" doesn't seem to work due to a typo in the code cleanup of v1.0, but all single downloads work fine.
Due to how the coding of the massive performance boost of v1.0.0+ is, some apps sometimes add garbage to the app title. A double scan on non-alphanumeric app titles might be able to fix this, or a better renaming function might work as a hotfix.

Support

If you want to support the original creator of HexFlow Launcher (not this revamp mod), you can join his Patreon.

Changelog

(v.1.0.1)

Still has all of the features of v1.0.0, ex: SwitchView UI integration, instant overrides, and cy33hc/copyicons integration.
Fixed where some overrides wouldn't save to overrides.dat,
Fixed where you sometimes have to click "download cover" twice for a PS1 game due to a value not being cleared.
Fixed where overriding to PS1 sometimes caused a minor visual bug.
New feature and/or bugfix: downloaded single covers now show up ASAP instead of showing blank temporarily.

(v.1.0)

SwitchView UI v0.1.2 integration + vita cover crop ability.
Extreme performance boost, the best so far.
Much better cover downloads, especially PS1.
App Renaming. Reset via triangle/start menu.
Better music support. Toggle loop, use .OGG/.MP3
cy33hc/copyicons full integration (start menu)
Massively cleaned up code from v0.9
4 new backgrounds (12 total) or use your own.
Spin override animation + instant recache.
10 languages, easy to edit language files.
Many new options in settings.
Secret Feature: select+L/R to jump by alphabet.
Completed Frameworks for future features:
grid view support (search l==p in source code)
Retroflow (done, in bugtesting)
Individual app overclock profiler (done, in bugtesting)
Super-fast self-updating cache (done, in bugtesting)

(v.0.9.1)

Editted some triangle menu messagebox translations to display properly.
Removed select button debug messagebox that was accidentally left in public release.
Added oneshot.png and cache_GIF_25x25.gif to data folder so the finished app would be 6.68 instead of 6.66mb

(v.0.9)

+2 Languages (Chinese, Polish). 10 total.
8 backgrounds, 6 From HEXFlow ( https://github.com/andiweli/hexflow-covers/tree/main/Backgrounds ), 2 from Retroflow ( https://github.com/jimbob4000/RetroFlow-Launcher/releases/ )
Starts up in ~2.9 seconds for 550 games (after the first launch). Refresh cache via the start menu (a later version may have "rolling refresh", so you won't have to).
Click.wav -> ogg stability bugfix (credit retroflow). It was supposed to help reduce crashing but I'm not sure.
Minor graphical bugfix (in custom category in v0.8)
Still using the buffed CPU code at the start from HexLauncher Custom v0.8, (now also in Retroflow v3.5!) for performance boost.
General PS1 bugfix, proper categorization and you can press triangle to generate a serial for cover download of PS1 games with bad ID's (most of them).
So much better touch scrolling.
Cool loading screen for when writing to cache.
Instant inline recache for single cover download, instant inline recache for "overrides" was removed (well, it's still there but commented out) because some people said it caused a crash... so you'll have to do proper refreshes for that.
There is an unreleased version with full rolling cache (when you install an app, it's instantly be added to cache on startup), but the code is pretty cringeworthy so it's not released yet.
“You must close HexLauncher First” bugfix.
Extreme code cleanup
Some progress towards adding Retroflow Rom-launching features, specifically, “xCatLookup” function (only framework).
Proper footer button spacing (90% credit Retroflow)
It will generates "applist.dat" on launch or when you hit "Refresh Cache". Either edit it within Vitashell, or upload it to your computer and edit it with gVim. Notepad won't work, it must be a unix-based text editor. Rename it to "customsort.dat" and put it back in "ux0:/data/HexFlow/" to create the custom category.
I recommend you put Moonlight first, then your system apps like Retroarch and Autoplugin II, then leave the other games in normal alphabetical order. You can put them in any order you want though. For v0.8, you can have duplicates in customsort if you put them. (NOTE: this caused a minor graphical bug for some PSP games and was removed in next version).
Wanna know how fast your startup was? (it should be ~2900 milliseconds). Go to the start menu > about.

(v.0.8)

New Portugese and Japanese language options. (8 total)
Starts up in ~4 seconds after the first launch. Refresh cache via the start menu (a later version may have "rolling refresh", so you won't have to). After overriding a game's category or downloading a cover, you must refresh cache.
Super performance boost from buffed CPU code at the start.
It will generates "applist.dat" on launch or when you hit "Refresh Cache". Either edit it within Vitashell, or upload it to your computer and edit it with gVim. Notepad won't work, it must be a unix-based text editor. Rename it to "customsort.dat" and put it back in "ux0:/data/HexFlow/" to create the custom category.
I recommend you put Moonlight first, then your system apps like Retroarch and Autoplugin II, then leave the other games in normal alphabetical order. You can put them in any order you want though. For v0.8, you can have duplicates in customsort if you put them. (NOTE: this caused a minor graphical bug for some PSP games and was removed in next version).
Wanna know how fast your startup was? (it should be ~4000 milliseconds). Go to the start menu > about.

(v.0.7)

The only difference between 0.7 and 0.6 is that this one loads all icons flat and refuses to use covers (this speeds up the app at least 15%). It also has only 2 categories (all and custom).

(v.0.6)

Mod of VitaHex's HexFlow Launcher 0.5 that lets you custom sort your games in any order you want and put cool cases on them.

Credits

Credits (Revamp Mod)

Programming: BlackSheepBoy69 (me) and one or more coders who wish to remain anonymous

Special Thanks

Inspiration + various help: Team RetroFlow

You! Users who enjoy HexFlow Launcher, HexLauncher Custom, and Retroflow, who submit feature requests to this/those projects (which I do watch), and occasionally code. Thank you!

Credits (General)

Programming/UI: Sakis RG

Developed with Lua Player Plus by Rinnegatamante

Special Thanks

Creckeryop

andiweli (HEXFlow Covers database) (v0.9.1 and below)

jimbob4000 (RetroFlow Covers database) (v1.0 and above)

Translations

French - @chronoss
German - @stuermerandreas
Spanish - @kodyna91
Italian - @TheheroGAC
Russian - @_novff
Swedish - @Spoxnus86
Portuguese - @nighto (Retroflow)
Japanese - @iGlitch (Retroflow)
Chinese - @acd13141 (Retroflow)
Polish - @SK00RUPA (Retroflow)

Google Translate was used for HexFlow Launcher Unofficial Custom translations that weren't found on HexFlow Launcher and Retroflow. Retroflow's oddly formatted translation files have been standardized.

External links