Community Theme Creator 3.2.2

42 minutes ago, Madhead said:

I reckon it was CTC version 3.0 and 3.1 that I used where the animations looked right. The animations are the same in the default version of the colourful theme for the platform wheel. I left them untouched. I'll send you the custom theme I use but they have the colorful platform videos with them so the whole thing is about 1.6GB. I can send it over email if LB won't let me.

Colorful - Light.zip 1.64 GB · 0 downloads

yeah something is definitely off.  did you open the platforms view in the editor itself (enable animations plus animations with movement) then use the virtual game pad? it looks fine in the editor, just not engaging some of the animations in the main preview window

7 minutes ago, y2guru said:

yeah something is definitely off.  did you open the platforms view in the editor itself (enable animations plus animations with movement) then use the virtual game pad? it looks fine in the editor, just not engaging some of the animations in the main preview window

Yeah the editor shows the animations working properly unlike the preview. But the timings are still off. The hardware image should move at the same pace as the background video and it doesn't anymore. It probably still does on the old version, but I deleted it like a dick so I can't check. If anything, any change you made to CTC might mean some themes have some little kinks to update. I've checked the official colorful theme thread and they have removed the downloads for the CTC theme files, maybe because of this very issue with the new CTC version. It's one of the more popular themes on BigBox so I think they may be updating it to work properly on the new CTC. It's probably up to theme creators to update their themes and sort stuff like this out. I dont get the preview thing tho, might be because it's using animations from older versions?

2 minutes ago, Madhead said:

Yeah the editor shows the animations working properly unlike the preview. But the timings are still off. The hardware image should move at the same pace as the background video and it doesn't anymore. It probably still does on the old version, but I deleted it like a dick so I can't check. If anything, any change you made to CTC might mean some themes have some little kinks to update. I've checked the official colorful theme thread and they have removed the downloads for the CTC theme files, maybe because of this very issue with the new CTC version. It's one of the more popular themes on BigBox so I think they may be updating it to work properly on the new CTC. It's probably up to theme creators to update their themes and sort stuff like this out. I dont get the preview thing tho, might be because it's using animations from older versions?

well, so far its been broken since 3.1.5

13 minutes ago, y2guru said:

well, so far its been broken since 3.1.5

Yeah mate well I reckon it's something to do with animation inputs not being 100% compatible with eachother. Might need to just reimplement the same instructions but fresh from the new version of CTC.

1 minute ago, Madhead said:

Yeah mate well I reckon it's something to do with animation inputs not being 100% compatible with eachother. Might need to just reimplement the same instructions but fresh from the new version of CTC.

Nah that’s not it.  It’s about triggering the animations, in the editor it’s triggering, the main window isn’t and now bigbox apparently has different timings when triggers are updated.  I’ll take a look tonight to resolve the Ctc side but I’ll have to reach out to the lb team to confirm any timing changes

1 hour ago, y2guru said:

Nah that’s not it.  It’s about triggering the animations, in the editor it’s triggering, the main window isn’t and now bigbox apparently has different timings when triggers are updated.  I’ll take a look tonight to resolve the Ctc side but I’ll have to reach out to the lb team to confirm any timing changes

Ok then, I suppose if you're aware of the problem then all the better off the project will be. Sorry for the hastle lol.

1 minute ago, Madhead said:

Ok then, I suppose if you're aware of the problem then all the better off the project will be. Sorry for the hastle lol.

Yeah I can figure out the triggering issue in Ctc (looking into that now)  but I looked at the movement animations and they start at 1.1 and 2.5 for the two different elements, that would why they don’t start at the same time.  That’s not a Ctc thing

5 minutes ago, y2guru said:

Yeah I can figure out the triggering issue in Ctc (looking into that now)  but I looked at the movement animations and they start at 1.1 and 2.5 for the two different elements, that would why they don’t start at the same time.  That’s not a Ctc thing

Hmm, well I checked the official version of colorful theme and it has the same animation problem, since it's untouched in mine. Wonder why they were properly synced up in older versions of the theme creator?

Edited September 28 by Madhead

@y2guru I've been digging around and found an older version of my theme and it was published on CTC version 2.5.5. Maybe thats the culprit?

@y2guru Also that version has working animations in bigbox.

1 minute ago, Madhead said:

@y2guru I've been digging around and found an older version of my theme and it was published on CTC version 2.5.5. Maybe thats the culprit?

animation start values have nothing to do with the software, those values are altered by the author

43 minutes ago, Madhead said:

@y2guru Also that version has working animations in bigbox.

so, I figured out why the animations dont work in the main window, they only work when navigation up/down is pressed (and navigation up/down is not used in the main window), that answers the remaining issue.  I see no software issues with CTC

4 minutes ago, y2guru said:

so, I figured out why the animations dont work in the main window, they only work when navigation up/down is pressed (and navigation up/down is not used in the main window), that answers the remaining issue.  I see no software issues with CTC

Right, so does that mean the animations need updating in the theme itself? Fair doos if so. Still though, do you know why the same animations matched up in CTC 2.5.5 but not in the new one? Trippy that.

Just now, Madhead said:

Right, so does that mean the animations need updating in the theme itself? Fair doos if so. Still though, do you know why the same animations matched up in CTC 2.5.5 but not in the new one? Trippy that.

yes the animation start times need to be updated to be in sync as why they match in one version and not in another i couldnt tell you, again not the software, maintained by the author.

2 minutes ago, y2guru said:

yes the animation start times need to be updated to be in sync as why they match in one version and not in another i couldnt tell you, again not the software, maintained by the author.

Fair enough then. Thanks for the help, at least now I know.

13 hours ago, Madhead said:

Fair enough then. Thanks for the help, at least now I know.

One more thing mate, do you know how to add 3d box models to a theme in place of box art images? Like the standard BigBox theme does for example?

On 9/29/2024 at 7:49 AM, Madhead said:

One more thing mate, do you know how to add 3d box models to a theme in place of box art images? Like the standard BigBox theme does for example?

Show me the example from the standard BigBox theme

4 minutes ago, y2guru said:

Show me the example from the standard BigBox theme

Was introduced in BigBox version 13.0. There are a few themes i've seen that allow you to put a 3d box model in place of the box art. Allows you to rotate with the right stick as well. Been a thing for quite a while now.

1 hour ago, Madhead said:

Was introduced in BigBox version 13.0. There are a few themes i've seen that allow you to put a 3d box model in place of the box art. Allows you to rotate with the right stick as well. Been a thing for quite a while now.

If you can find an example of where it’s used I’ll look at the XAML

7 minutes ago, y2guru said:

If you can find an example of where it’s used I’ll look at the XAML

I'm pretty sure the "Text List with Details" view on the default BigBox theme has a 3D model as the box art view. The text wheel is to the left hand side of the screen and the 3D model is right next to it. I'm guessing the code for the 3D model would be in the xaml for that view in the default theme? Another example is the Retrofresh theme, "Text List with Details" view as well. I'm not actually sure what part of the code would be the 3D model tho.

On 9/28/2024 at 7:25 PM, Madhead said:

Right, so does that mean the animations need updating in the theme itself? Fair doos if so. Still though, do you know why the same animations matched up in CTC 2.5.5 but not in the new one? Trippy that.

read up on the theme's thread. I posted details on how to resolve the discrepancies.

 

 

On 9/28/2024 at 7:27 PM, y2guru said:

yes the animation start times need to be updated to be in sync as why they match in one version and not in another i couldnt tell you, again not the software, maintained by the author.

I discovered this I guess back in 3.1.3 per my previous post in the linked thread.

Copy/paste the 2.5.5 theme source files into the CTC folder for 3.1.3 (or later/more recent versions) and it seemed all animations are out of sync in 3.1.3+

My experience suggests it is not their start time, or duration, etc parameter/values related to animations.

It is the "update when selected" and "update during selection" radio bubble option that is messing with things. Per my post it seems I concluded they don't really operate the same anymore due to update during selection now occurring earlier when compared to previous versions of CTC. I'm talking about copy/paste of the same files that worked through 2.02 (or whatever version was used to initially make the CTC version of the theme) up to 2.5.5. After 2.5.5 is when I first started noticing the issues that Madhead is also referring to.

9 minutes ago, skizzosjt said:

read up on the theme's thread. I posted details on how to resolve the discrepancies.

 

 

I discovered this I guess back in 3.1.3 per my previous post in the linked thread.

Copy/paste the 2.5.5 theme source files into the CTC folder for 3.1.3 (or later/more recent versions) and it seemed all animations are out of sync in 3.1.3+

My experience suggests it is not their start time, or duration, etc parameter/values related to animations.

It is the "update when selected" and "update during selection" radio bubble option that is messing with things. Per my post it seems I concluded they don't really operate the same anymore due to update during selection now occurring earlier when compared to previous versions of CTC. I'm talking about copy/paste of the same files that worked through 2.02 (or whatever version was used to initially make the CTC version of the theme) up to 2.5.5. After 2.5.5 is when I first started noticing the issues that Madhead is also referring to.

Madheads issues are due to 2 animations starting at different times and hence will never be in sync.

1 hour ago, skizzosjt said:

read up on the theme's thread. I posted details on how to resolve the discrepancies.

 

 

I discovered this I guess back in 3.1.3 per my previous post in the linked thread.

Copy/paste the 2.5.5 theme source files into the CTC folder for 3.1.3 (or later/more recent versions) and it seemed all animations are out of sync in 3.1.3+

My experience suggests it is not their start time, or duration, etc parameter/values related to animations.

It is the "update when selected" and "update during selection" radio bubble option that is messing with things. Per my post it seems I concluded they don't really operate the same anymore due to update during selection now occurring earlier when compared to previous versions of CTC. I'm talking about copy/paste of the same files that worked through 2.02 (or whatever version was used to initially make the CTC version of the theme) up to 2.5.5. After 2.5.5 is when I first started noticing the issues that Madhead is also referring to.

Aw nice one mate you've hit the nail on the head! Only thing is i'm unsure what exact elements need changing? Are the elements i've circled in these pictures what you're on about?

The Background color element is what you refer to as the LHS Rectangle Color yes? And the Full Screen White Background as the RHS one? Do you put the Hardware overlay in it's own grid too? Thanks.

55 minutes ago, Madhead said:

Aw nice one mate you've hit the nail on the head! Only thing is i'm unsure what exact elements need changing? Are the elements i've circled in these pictures what you're on about?

The Background color element is what you refer to as the LHS Rectangle Color yes? And the Full Screen White Background as the RHS one? Do you put the Hardware overlay in it's own grid too? Thanks.

anything with an "A" icon in the element list, so.. Hardware Overlay, Full Screen White Background (Maybe)   look at the start times for the same trigger types (During Selection, Once Selected)  as when those triggers are set, the expectation is that the elements will move or react at the same time and as you know, they are not.

1 hour ago, Madhead said:

Aw nice one mate you've hit the nail on the head! Only thing is i'm unsure what exact elements need changing? Are the elements i've circled in these pictures what you're on about?

The Background color element is what you refer to as the LHS Rectangle Color yes? And the Full Screen White Background as the RHS one? Do you put the Hardware overlay in it's own grid too? Thanks.

The "hardware overlay" element is definitely one of them that needs adjusting. The element itself, so the one you circled, needs to use the "update during selection" radio bubble. This way the hardware overlay image immediately changes each time you scroll to a new platform in your wheel. This keeps that part of the theme working as the original authors intended.

Then it gets into the understandably confusing part. I know what needs to be done, but may struggle to explain it. So, don't be shy about asking for help, I'll do my best.

If you leave the animation properties tied to that same hardware overlay element it's going to also do the transparency changes, and the position animation change at the same time. Meaning it's going to happen at a wrong time. We need the animation properties to start once selected which means we need to use the "update once selected" radio bubble. Problem here is we are already requiring this element to use update during selection for the image to change when intended. This hopefully explains the reasoning for the disconnect  between animations of various elements.

So, to get around this I made a GRID element that will be a PARENT element to the hardware overlay element. This makes the hardware overlay element now a child element to the grid element. I then copied the animation settings from the hardware overlay element, into the new grid element. You will then need to make sure the grid element is using update once selected radio bubble, as well as then remove the animations from the hardware overlay element since we don't want these animations on both elements, it would cause things to be misaligned still.

Putting this together now means the hardware overlay will update during selections, meaning right away. But since we now put the hardware overlay into a parent element that has the animation properties, we can use update once selected for the parent element. This results is the opacity and position changes will happen at the right time. All together, it means it will work just like the authors originally intended.

 

I'm going off my memory right now, so I could make some screen shots of my CTC settings to make sure I'm not misremembering details.

 

Full screen background can be left as is I believe.

Background color.....might need an update? If anything it should be "update during selection"....I assume. I think if it is on "update once selected" it still works "OK" but the colors are going to change a few moments later. Like if you are in a playlist that has games from many platforms/systems with different colors, you might see the "old" color for a split second before the selected bindings are read.

I changed names of stuff to make more sense to me. So the "Background color" is not the same as what I called "LHS Rectangle Color". I think that specific element is only in the 1st wheel which is what you show in this image. But just to clarify, from your video you posted you were using the 2nd wheel there. The difference there is the 2nd wheel has the color coordinated background taking up the whole screen. The first wheel always has sort of a dark gray section on the left hand side and puts some of the info into a color conditioned rectangle. The wheels are a little different like that, so there are different adjustments needed for both wheels to animate correctly. I did do the fixes for both, but looking back at my previous posts I see I only really addressed this on wheel 1. Take note some issues also occur on the game selection view (whatever the views are called for selecting the actual game). I do not recall if TextListGameView (or whatever the text list view is called) has some problems too. There are at least 4 views that would need adjusting. Two platform views, and two game views, at least. Possible a 5th would be the TextList one.

There is def more I changed, but don't remember all the details. So I'd have to look at my settings and post them, or something to give more specific details. I already feel like I'm rambling lol

 

Give it a shot and let me know if you need some more help! I'm willing to share images of my settings or even the CTC files, whatever would help you out.