theme Unified 1.2

@CriticalCid Love, Love, Love this them. Can you fix this:

• Quote

  In Big Box: To avoid spinning cart art go to: Options -> Views -> Make sure that „Remember separate View for each platform” is checked. Than go either to the Keyboard Mappings or the Controller Buttons settings and set up a key/button for “Switch View”. Now you can go back to your platforms and switch the games Views for each platform individually on the fly.

Not sure if that is supposed to be 2 separate bullet items or what, but I am not clear on what to do here. Also, what button sequence on an XBOX USB clone controller do you recommend to switch views?

My system is pretty slow using this theme and the videos load corrupted/pixilated and then straighten out after a few seconds. Is it just that I need a faster machine. I was testing this on an older machine to see if I could use it as a game machine:

Lenovo M70e (ThinkCentre) Type 0803 - Model AT9
Intel Pendium Dual Core E5500 2.8GHz

GE Force GT-710

Intel G41 Express Chipset (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM 1.1)
Intel 4 Series Express Chipset Family, Intel Corporation Compatible
driver igdkmd64.tys (8.15.10.2702)

Acer AL2216 monitor 1680x1050

I downloaded the 1080p Unified videos. I don't think there is a 720p version of any of them. Do I have a choice of playback software like on RetroPie? Maybe another video player will be faster or at least not corrupt the image. It looks like Media player is the only other option and not recommended. Lower res videos work fine, these look like directv in a rainstorm for the first 2 seconds, then look perfect.

Edited April 19, 2018 by FlightRisk

Love this theme! With all the people making custom media specifically for this theme, would it be possible to hard code (or any other way) where the theme looks for box art? There’s a ton of great new box art that I only want to use for this theme. Currently box art is all or nothing, would be great if it could be theme specific (like platform logos and videos). 

21 hours ago, FlightRisk said:

@CriticalCid Love, Love, Love this them. Can you fix this:

•  

Not sure if that is supposed to be 2 separate bullet items or what, but I am not clear on what to do here. Also, what button sequence on an XBOX USB clone controller do you recommend to switch views?

It’s supposed to be one bullet item. Which part do you don't understand exactly? Just change the Big Box options like explained, go back to your platforms menu and choose go into any platform. Then when you are in a platform you can just press the button you have set up for "Switch View" and you'll see for yourself what happens  

The only recommendation I have for setting up the button is to don't use the 'A' or 'B' buttons as they are already taken for Select and Back. Any other button will suffice just fine.

21 hours ago, FlightRisk said:

My system is pretty slow using this theme and the videos load corrupted/pixilated and then straighten out after a few seconds. Is it just that I need a faster machine. I was testing this on an older machine to see if I could use it as a game machine:

Lenovo M70e (ThinkCentre) Type 0803 - Model AT9
Intel Pendium Dual Core E5500 2.8GHz

GE Force GT-710

Intel G41 Express Chipset (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM 1.1)
Intel 4 Series Express Chipset Family, Intel Corporation Compatible
driver igdkmd64.tys (8.15.10.2702)

Acer AL2216 monitor 1680x1050

I downloaded the 1080p Unified videos. I don't think there is a 720p version of any of them. Do I have a choice of playback software like on RetroPie? Maybe another video player will be faster or at least not corrupt the image. It looks like Media player is the only other option and not recommended. Lower res videos work fine, these look like directv in a rainstorm for the first 2 seconds, then look perfect.

I haven’t run Big Box on such old and slow hardware so I can’t say it for sure but it could definitely be the reason. Though pixelated videos often happen when the hard drive can’t keep up with reading the video. Do you happen to run the videos from a network path or USB-Drive?

Even though Big Box says that Windows Media player isn’t recommend you should still try it out and see if that helps. You could also try to install the K-Lite Codec pack as that can boost performance with WMP drastically.

Do you have these performance problems with other Big Box themes as well? Because the feedback I got is that Unified is supposedly one of the fastest and snappiest themes out there.

18 hours ago, angelobodetti said:

Love this theme! With all the people making custom media specifically for this theme, would it be possible to hard code (or any other way) where the theme looks for box art? There’s a ton of great new box art that I only want to use for this theme. Currently box art is all or nothing, would be great if it could be theme specific (like platform logos and videos). 

Unfortunately it’s only possible to use the 8 image type categories for this. So if you want to have 2 separated 3D box image sets than is your only option to put the second set into a different category you don’t really use otherwise. For example the 3D Carts., Steam Banners, or whatever.

@CriticalCid gotcha. So it’s not possible for the theme (or any theme) to check its own folder structure for “3D Box” (LaunchBox/Theme/Images/Platform Name/3D Box)? It will only check LaunchBox/Images/Platform Name/3D Box?

At least not by default. It would be possible if your artwork is exactly to 100% named like your ROM files but that’s going into territories I rather want to avoid.

9 hours ago, CriticalCid said:

I haven’t run Big Box on such old and slow hardware so I can’t say it for sure but it could definitely be the reason. Though pixelated videos often happen when the hard drive can’t keep up with reading the video. Do you happen to run the videos from a network path or USB-Drive?

Even though Big Box says that Windows Media player isn’t recommend you should still try it out and see if that helps. You could also try to install the K-Lite Codec pack as that can boost performance with WMP drastically.

Do you have these performance problems with other Big Box themes as well? Because the feedback I got is that Unified is supposedly one of the fastest and snappiest themes out there.

I was confused by the inverted quotes here:

In Big Box: To avoid spinning cart art go to: Options -> Views -> Make sure that „Remember separate View for each platform” is checked. 

I thought they were 2 commas and something was missing. It seemed like 2 different things. Now I get they ARE two different things, but related. A. stop the spinning disks and/or carts and B. Setup a hotkey button to switch views. I thought the "Remember" was a new directive from you. It is actually a quoted selection option.

I did try Windows Media Player and it works perfectly! I thought VLC would be faster. Not sure if there are tweaks for VLC to try it again.

No, I'm not using a network or USB drive. I have a 1TB regular drive in the machine.

And I did already have K-Lite. I needed it for something else. I just updated it though. The version I have now is a MUCH more complicated install. Lots of screens and options before it ever gets installed.  It didn't seem to make a difference to either player.

QUESTION: On my platform wheel, the Vectrix graphic is just text. Should it be a custom logo? It just says "GCE Vectrix". How would I replace it with something else?

The theme doesn't come with any platform wheels. If you are missing one than there's probably no proper default logo that comes directly with LaunchBox.

You can check the download section if you find a good logo for it and add it manually.

Love the theme, it's now my default set up. However, I'm having a couple of minor issues that are setting my OCD off.

First one is the Amiga CD32 logo on the platform selection wheel. Every other platform's logo appears OK, but the CD32 is text only. I've checked and double checked and all the names are correct and match what it should be, and it scrapes as 'Commodore Amiga CD32'. There's also a CD32 clear logo in the images, but it's just not appearing. Ignore the fact Daphne is showing in the background of the image I've posted, I caught the screenshot as it was switching. Any ideas?Secondly, on some of the game lists for certain platforms, they too appear as text only, instead of clear logos. There's a few of the platforms doing this, even those who's platform clear logo works fine, but the games for it don't. Again, there are clear logo images in the LB images folder for each platform.

Thanks for any help and keep up the good work!

20 hours ago, MancVandal said:

Love the theme, it's now my default set up. However, I'm having a couple of minor issues that are setting my OCD off.

First one is the Amiga CD32 logo on the platform selection wheel. Every other platform's logo appears OK, but the CD32 is text only. I've checked and double checked and all the names are correct and match what it should be, and it scrapes as 'Commodore Amiga CD32'. There's also a CD32 clear logo in the images, but it's just not appearing. Ignore the fact Daphne is showing in the background of the image I've posted, I caught the screenshot as it was switching. Any ideas?

Try to rebuild the image cache: Big Box -> Options -> Image Cache -> Refresh Platform Wheel Images

 

20 hours ago, MancVandal said:

Secondly, on some of the game lists for certain platforms, they too appear as text only, instead of clear logos. There's a few of the platforms doing this, even those who's platform clear logo works fine, but the games for it don't. Again, there are clear logo images in the LB images folder for each platform.

Thanks for any help and keep up the good work!

That's because you have the wrong View selected for these platforms. To change that: Big Box ->Options -> Either go to the Keyboard Mappings or the Controller Buttons settings and set up a key/button for “Switch View”.

Now go back to said platforms and switch the Games Views for each of them to the one you want.

24 minutes ago, CriticalCid said:

Try to rebuild the image cache: Big Box -> Options -> Image Cache -> Refresh Platform Wheel Images

 

That's because you have the wrong View selected for these platforms. To change that: Big Box ->Options -> Either go to the Keyboard Mappings or the Controller Buttons settings and set up a key/button for “Switch View”.

Now go back to said platforms and switch the Games Views for each of them to the one you want.

Worked perfectly. Thanks!

I get a "flash" of box art after selecting a rom from the game wheel. As the screen fades out from the game selection screen to the game details screen where you can select "Play", "launch with", etc., I see what looks like a horizontal section of the box art moving through a window. IOW, imagine a 1" tall rectangle the width of the box and the box moves through it. It looks like an artifact of some kind. I don't know if this has to do with the effect of the box dropping into the frame or what. If it helps, I have a PC monitor that is not 1080p, it is a standard, but odd resolution of 1680x1050. Also, while the platform screen and the game wheel screen both have a platform logo on it, when I select a game that next screen just have a huge "BigBox" logo on it and the same video and box (minus the cart) appears on that screen too. 

Can you try to make a screenshot or video when that happens and post it here?

As for the logo I'll just quote myself from the download description:

Quote

Known issues:

The logo of the Platform/Playlist and the individual video border don't show up in the Game Details screen and the theme displays the generic Big Box logo and metallic video border instead, when it gets opened through any other Games View than the Text List View.

Unfortunately I'm not able to fix this at the moment.

On 4/24/2018 at 1:06 PM, CriticalCid said:

Can you try to make a screenshot or video when that happens and post it here?

I will do that. However, I *think* I have figured out what is happening, but not why. 

The Flash of boxart - I believe this is an artifact of something that is happening in the background related to the drawing of the boxart. The monitor on that system is 1680x1050 instead of 1920x1080. So the game screen backgrounds that are 1080p will have a black border at the top and bottom. I didn't notice this because the backgrounds are black. So I installed other platforms to get colored background. It looks like the box is sliding down behind the background? Not sure what it is doing, but I am seeing it because the background has a 1" or so gap between it and the top of the screen. It is like the platform screen is re-loading and dropping down the boxart at the same time the game screen (with the vertical menu down the right where you can "play", etc.) is loading. I could create a background that is only an 100px tall and 1080 wide and see more of what is going on behind the background.

And thanks for the note about the logo bug. I had read that but it didn't register until I learned more now about how BB and the themes work. I'll upload a video when I figure out how to use the Windows 10 XBox game popup that can record or install something I know how to use

My squished vertically background didn't work. There is a setting somewhere that is telling it to fill a certain screensize. So no matter what graphic I make, it will be the same size with a black border at the top and bottom

Here is a video of the issue. Watch above the "O" in "Color". It may not register well in this video because the animation is fast. It looks almost like a slot machine spinning its wheels.

 

LaunchBox_Big_Box_4_25_2018_2_23_02_PM.mp4

9 minutes ago, FlightRisk said:

Here is a video of the issue. Watch above the "O" in "Color". It may not register well in this video because the animation is fast. It looks almost like a slot machine spinning its wheels.

 

LaunchBox_Big_Box_4_25_2018_2_23_02_PM.mp4

Wow, with all due respect I have just watched that video 3 times in a row and I see nothing like you are describing.??? 

It shows twice. When I hit enter to go from the first game screen to the game detail screen. Maybe better to look above the L in color. Are you watching the video in the browser, or downloading it and watching it. Even though it is more noticeable in real time at 60fps, I can still still a rectangle that is that is the graphics for the box sliding through the window it is displaying in.

5 minutes ago, FlightRisk said:

It shows twice. When I hit enter to go from the first game screen to the game detail screen. Maybe better to look above the L in color. Are you watching the video in the browser, or downloading it and watching it. Even though it is more noticeable in real time at 60fps, I can still still a rectangle that is that is the graphics for the box sliding through the window it is displaying in.

I downloaded it and watching in VLC, I see nothing, maybe its a monitor and resolution issue?

It happens at 6 seconds and at 11 seconds. I can see now that it is the box image sliding down from the top of the screen. You can see it slide above the top of my background image (which doesn't fill the screen at the top and bottom), then it disappears behind the background ant the BigBox logo, and then it appears and ends it's travel with just a little bounce. I can see that on the main game screen, it falls in front of the background and logo. But the second screen, which is pretty much identical except for the game details menu on the right, draws the box sliding behind.

Very top of the screen at the right side above the L in game boy color. I just tried it in 3 different media players. But you are right, Let me switch from Windows Media Player to VLC for the video player in bigbox. But that hardly works at all on my machine, the videos start out garbled and then fix themselves after a second or two.

Edited April 26, 2018 by FlightRisk

1 minute ago, FlightRisk said:

Very top of the screen at the right side above the L in game boy color

Sorry, nope I see nothing. if there is any weird thing there then you are the first to see and report it. Now I'm not saying what you are saying isn't happening, I'm just saying I don't see it.

I see what he's talking about but it happens very quickly

I just used VLC at at the 6 second mark of the video I recorded, I took a snapshot. It looks like about 3 or 4 frames of the art sliding down. You can see that the background had faded to black and is starting to return.