theme COLORFUL bigbox theme 2.03

First of all, thank you so much for this theme. It's so clean and fun to use. I can't wait to see what you do with the other view ideas. I really appreciate the time and effort you have put into creating this and sharing it for all of us to use.

I'm not positive, but there might be a memory leak or something like it. I was in the theme for a while testing views (using 'V' on my keyboard) and switching platforms when launchbox crashed. Then when I tried to relaunch the program it said my PC was out of memory and it couldn't continue. The only other thing I had open was youtube in chrome and discord. This has never happened before, but maybe it was something else. If crash logs are stored I can post it if needed. I just don't know where they are.

Two other little things, the theme doesn't display the same between different resolution monitors. For some reason the platform videos don't center when shifting to the right on my 1080p monitors, but they look fine on my 1440p. It's not a big deal for me but maybe some 1080p users will have issues.

Okay, last one thing, I think the game videos can be shrunk a little since the top and bottom appears to be slightly cut off. Not sure if that was intended, but I thought I'd mention it since I didn't notice it at first. (This is also severely affected by using a 1080p monitor).

Thank you again!!

Edited September 23, 2019 by CutTheRug

@CutTheRug : Wow Thx! This is a complete comment!

About Memory Leak.
Jason had noticed this problem to. He literally spent nights on it to find the source. He succeeded: it's Windows Media Player!
Try it:

• In BigBox option, set the video player on VLC.
• Your Windows is up to date ?
• Your .Net framework is up to date ? >>Download Here<<
• Reboot your PC.

Resolution Dependence.
There should be no problem. I use the @eatkinola plugin to adjust the measure on the fly. I'm surprised this problem because the theme is coded for the 2160p, and my screen is in 1080p. And everything is displayed correctly. I'm thinking of a "second monitor" bug. @Jason Carr ? Maybe VLC correct this problem to ?
If no, what video set do you use?
I've designed this theme to show exactly the same for everyone, regardless of your screen resolution.

Shrunk Video.
Yes, I thought about it. And it's already corrected! To slightly improve the visibility of the video. Available at the next release.
I mean, the little white band up and down. Horizontally, the video aera is in (almost) 4:3 format. It's a design choice. The resolution of your screen does not change anything on this point.
If 16:9 video: There will necessarily be side cuts.
If 4:3 video: There will be slightly cut.
If Vertical videos: There will have white stripes.

12 hours ago, viking said:

@CutTheRug : Wow Thx! This is a complete comment!

About Memory Leak.
Jason had noticed this problem to. He literally spent nights on it to find the source. He succeeded: it's Windows Media Player!
Try it:

• In BigBox option, set the video player on VLC.
• Your Windows is up to date ?
• Your .Net framework is up to date ? >>Download Here<<
• Reboot your PC.

Resolution Dependence.
There should be no problem. I use the @eatkinola plugin to adjust the measure on the fly. I'm surprised this problem because the theme is coded for the 2160p, and my screen is in 1080p. And everything is displayed correctly. I'm thinking of a "second monitor" bug. @Jason Carr ? Maybe VLC correct this problem to ?
If no, what video set do you use?
I've designed this theme to show exactly the same for everyone, regardless of your screen resolution.

Shrunk Video.
Yes, I thought about it. And it's already corrected! To slightly improve the visibility of the video. Available at the next release.
I mean, the little white band up and down. Horizontally, the video aera is in (almost) 4:3 format. It's a design choice. The resolution of your screen does not change anything on this point.
If 16:9 video: There will necessarily be side cuts.
If 4:3 video: There will be slightly cut.
If Vertical videos: There will have white stripes.

Thank you for the reply!!

Here is a picture of what's happening when displayed on my 1080p monitor. My guess is that you're right and it has something to do with multiple monitors. I'm also using VLC and have the latest .NET so I have no idea what happened with the memory overload. It was definitely LB related but probably not the specific theme.

I did think of one more thing while scrolling through COLORFUL yesterday. Some videos displayed on the GBC have really bad FPS. I think it must be the videos from emumovies (if thats where u get them). Maybe they've updated them, but Zelda, Wario, and mario tennis all look strange. The only reason I mention it is because everything is so perfect that it kind of stands out.

Thanks again and have a good day!

Edited September 24, 2019 by CutTheRug

I absolutely love this theme and the videos. I check regularly for updates...

One thing I really dislike is the poster on the game view.

 

To me, it blocks the game's video way to much.. Can I edit the code somewhere to move its location or stop it displaying on this screen???

Or maybe consider this in the next release maybe???

Again, incredible, amazing work!!!

Edited October 3, 2019 by Wanderer189

Thank you !

Yes, the size of BoxArt comes back often in the comments. The "problem" is that it is important in the overall design.
I already started working on it for the next beta.
I reduced the overall size of the video by using the bands at the top and bottom. It's not much, but we gain a little visibility.
I also reduced the size of the BoxArt slightly.

A radical solution would be to remove the BoxArt from the main page and put it in the wheel, instead of ClearLogo.
But I must also create Dark version. If I have space, I will make this version.

 

I have a lot of work right now. I do my best to work on Colorful.

Great theme my friend!

Suggestion ...
Is there a way to keep the *,A,B,C,D,E ... menu vertical when using clear logos? I like the vertical design of the *,A,B,C,D,E menu with the default text. But Bigbox throws it down to a horizontal layout when using logos. Which makes my brain hurt... not as intuitive as a vertical menu. This goes for your Refried 2.0 theme too.
 

Edited October 5, 2019 by ItchyRobot

You're right ! I take a look ?

On 10/5/2019 at 1:44 PM, viking said:

You're right ! I take a look ?

Can I make another suggestion?
See the image below. Can you make the green highlighted text White instead of Grey? It is hard for me to read, old eyes =P
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SerYOObpyCPBiQlAulChKN6E3DVewE65/view?usp=sharing

@ItchyRobot : Again, you're right. I must fix this issue to !

Another day, another suggestion from me ?

I am trying to find a good solution for showing my controls for each game. There is a specific folder that BigBox uses for showing this image, it is called "Arcade - Controls Information", which is where you store the games controls layout image (ones I have created specifically for my arcade sticks/spinner/ball/buttons). With your current Colorful Theme layout I can navigate to this image by clicking on a game, then choosing View Images Fullscreen. This is nice, but a bit clunky to navigate to. It would be nice if you could somehow add another text selection called "Show Controls" that will bring up the image stored in the games  "Arcade - Controls Information" folder. Or is this already possible in BigBox's settings?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CofPWP_sgOyXiwn4OhzsqrPTgyPCVev6/view?usp=sharing
Thanks for listening to my suggestions!

@ItchyRobot : This time, I cant help you. I dont have a hand on this part. I can only adjust : font, font color & accentuation BG color. 
By the way, I would  like! To be able to adjust line by line font setting or to be able to replace text by buttons. To have the bigger "PLAY" text, for example.

At the end, I would like to create a "pause theme" and a "starup theme". For a complete experience.
Maybe I could embed this image in one of those views. I dont know yet.

6 hours ago, viking said:

@ItchyRobot : This time, I cant help you. I dont have a hand on this part. I can only adjust : font, font color & accentuation BG color. 
By the way, I would  like! To be able to adjust line by line font setting or to be able to replace text by buttons. To have the bigger "PLAY" text, for example.

At the end, I would like to create a "pause theme" and a "starup theme". For a complete experience.
Maybe I could embed this image in one of those views. I dont know yet.

That's too bad. I was hoping you could make something work. Is it a limitation that @Jason Carr puts on BigBox with its code, or is it that you do not know how to implement it?
@JoeViking245 and @Retro808 mentioned in the following thread that they have been successful in implementing the feature into their own Pause screens. So you may want to ask them for help if you are unsure how to make it work. See the end of Page 4 of this forum thread...

Hopefully one of the guys I linked on this post will chime in with their ideas since they are probably most knowledgeable of the code and what is and what is not possible.

Personally I would rather have the Controller image accessible from the game screen, like I mentioned in my previous post of this thread. Or better yet, in both locations, a link for the Game screen and in the Pause screen. The reason mainly being because the pause screen in MAME can be a bit flaky for me, not working sometimes. Plus, you may have to make the Pause screen rather large to ensure that the image is readable when the pause screen pops up.

 

Edited October 8, 2019 by ItchyRobot

Yes. It is possible to call a picture by game. Here, an image showing the commands. Not add a button for this popup.
But there is also a coherence in the colorful design that I do not want to loose.

The information is important and I will also like to see it at the beginning of each game, but it can be complicated.
It would take :  1 image per game (x) All system (x) All type of controler (=) Way too mutch! It's exponential! 
And all this, in Colorful style guidline, in my case.

I'll not do that ?

Edited October 8, 2019 by viking

Add me to the list for a dark version! Great job and keep up the good work!

@viking I am not sure if it is a bug or not. When you are veiwing a game, why will it only show 1 player?

I have tried different combinations and nothing works but single player for me.

For example, a 4 player game, I have tried:

4
1-4
1-4-Players
4-Player Alternating
Local Co-op
Local Co-op (Splitscreen)
Local Multi-Player
along with -  Single Player

Nothing works for me but Single Player

Screenshot

Is there anything I should check? It works fine in other themes I have tried.

Also noticed if I had no Star Ratings, then download them in LB, they are not showing in BB, they are in LB

Is there any type of cache files I can delete other than the images??

Edited October 20, 2019 by Wanderer189

@Wanderer189 Thanks for your feedback.

For Game players numbers, I used the Data Conversion function.
It's based on my own Game DataBase, to trie to have all the automatic formulation. I may have forgotten some and I may not be able to cover all the custom conventions made by users.

Currently, here are the converter that I have written in the code. On the left, the dataBase entries. On the right, what is visible in the theme.

2-Player Alternating = 2
2-Player Simultaneous = 2
3-Player Simultaneous = 3
4-Player Alternating = 4
4-Player Alternating / 2-Player Simultaneous = 2/4
4-Player Simultaneous = 4
6-Player Simultaneous = 6
8-Player Alternating / 2-Player Simultaneous = 2/8
8-Player Simultaneous = 8
Cooperative = 2+
Coopération = 2+
Multijoueur = 2+
Single Player = 1
Un joueur = 1

If you have any other formulation, give it to me precisely. I can add them to the code.
Preferably auto-generated entries. If I have to cover all the custom data of each user, it's endless! ?

 

EDIT : About the stars. They display the community's rating. If you have a personal rating, it's the one that will display instead. Everything works well at home. I am not aware of a cache file to be dumped at this level.

@Jason Carr An idea of why there is no connection between LB and BB?

Edited October 21, 2019 by viking

8 hours ago, viking said:

@Wanderer189 Thanks for your feedback.

For Game players numbers, I used the Data Conversion function.
It's based on my own Game DataBase, to trie to have all the automatic formulation. I may have forgotten some and I may not be able to cover all the custom conventions made by users.

Currently, here are the converter that I have written in the code. On the left, the dataBase entries. On the right, what is visible in the theme.

2-Player Alternating = 2
2-Player Simultaneous = 2
3-Player Simultaneous = 3
4-Player Alternating = 4
4-Player Alternating / 2-Player Simultaneous = 2/4
4-Player Simultaneous = 4
6-Player Simultaneous = 6
8-Player Alternating / 2-Player Simultaneous = 2/8
8-Player Simultaneous = 8
Cooperative = 2+
Coopération = 2+
Multijoueur = 2+
Single Player = 1
Un joueur = 1

If you have any other formulation, give it to me precisely. I can add them to the code.
Preferably auto-generated entries. If I have to cover all the custom data of each user, it's endless! ?

 

EDIT : About the stars. They display the community's rating. If you have a personal rating, it's the one that will display instead. Everything works well at home. I am not aware of a cache file to be dumped at this level.

@Jason Carr An idea of why there is no connection between LB and BB?

I'm not aware of an issue like that. Are you seeing that issue too @viking?

3 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

I'm not aware of an issue like that. Are you seeing that issue too @viking?

Please disregard the star issue, I found out what was going on, error on my part, so sorry

I really love this theme. I have been trying so hard to make everything over the top and flashy. But then this pops up and now i am happy. This is perfect. Keep on rockin ,am and thanks for making this theme! ?

I'm a first time user of LB and I checked your theme for the first time - it looks awesome. Please keep the work up and provide some more options, if possible. I would like to see a dark mode and maybe a horizontal platform/category wheel.

Is there a list of supported platform videos? 

This is a very clean and straight designed theme, there's not too much "blinky blinky" so it will look very stylish on my full size arcade...

Thanks a lot for the good work.

Thx @Tulac ! 

I know I'm very quiet right now. Sorry about that. I have a lot of work these days. I think I could send you updates within 2 weeks. Thank you for your patience !!
I work with @eatkinola on new cool feature. As soon as the 2 main view are finished, I will make new ones. Dark version is programmed.

You will find the list of videos supported on the dedicated page. Next update: category video.
 

No prob, I have no issues right now, everything works. Please take your time and all will be good...

 

As much as I like your theme, I would like to see some American versions of the systems (ex: Dreamcast).

Already planned  Japan as well.

Hi,

the only place in Bigbox where I don't use your videos is in playlists (collections...) The actual views makes non-COLORFUL vids being 2/3 visibles and not centered. Is there a way to define a specific view for this category only?

BTW, If you provide sources at some point, I'd love to contribute with collection playlists

Thanks again for your work!