Vertical Prototype (DEAD) 1.0.0

Very nice. Might need to try loading this on my pincab some time.

 

Great work so far...I have an old setup that I had downloaded called TATe Vertical using hyperspin...if ya want to take a look at it and see how the creator setup it up and maybe you use it with RL to continue your work...hit me up and let me know if ya want the setup...here is my email: eli517@hotmail.com and I can upload it to MEGA and you can get it from there...

cant wait to see what you come up with ?

 

Hi how do you start a vertical theme ?

Hey Jezz, this is a work in progress theme and template meant for user specific customization. It's not plug and play. you must first download y2guru theme creator and then load this theme. You can then publish to use in Bigbox.

Thanks I have done all that and the theme works in bigbox fine but when I try to edit it in theme creator it is not shown in a vertical aspect do i have to set windows to portrait ? TIA

 

yeah, my setup is using windows portrait.

When you use the community editor is there a setting for making vertical themes sorry to be a pain but I'm trying to get my head around how it works, I understand how to use layers like in photoshop and how each item goes into a box like artwork video text etc but do you use the editor in portrait mode or do you have to use landscape mode then rotate it after in windows so far there seems to be no videos of someone making a vertical theme, thanks

Yeah the monitor must be in portrait mode when you launch the editor. It uses whatever resolution your main windows monitor is. 

Goblindriver thank you very much for your help I will have a go at making a theme, if it's any good I'll post it on the forum ?. 

I just thought of one more caveat that is good to know. I don't know how to do the complicated process of editing the options views in big box, so I personally also download vertigo and drag all of the options views in to my vertical prototype folder in order to make them usable. If anyone out there is knowledgeable enough to do that for me I would appreciate it. It is pretty much the only thing stopping me from publishing this as a real theme instead of a template.

Thanks for this, Goblin. Can I ask—where did you get your vertical bezels from? I'm going to be playing mostly CAVE games on my setup as well.

EDIT: Sorry, just noticed you included links in the description!

Edited August 28, 2020 by jwhipp

Oh wow! can you tell me how to setup xenia to work like that when your in windows portrait mode?!? Im in portrait mode and when i launch the game it sizes to my screen rez instead of appearing like a TV on it's side like you have when you launched the game. My temporary fix is to put my windows monitor mode back in landscape and then launch the game but that is not a good solution if im using bigbox obviously. 

 

Also, how do I move my game window down in retroarch to fit in the offset overlays you designed? My games are obviously centered on screen and your overlay has a larger marquee size vs your footer. 

 

Edit: figured it out for Retroarch, need to use custom aspect and adjust offset

Edited September 5, 2020 by jwhipp

quick menu -> shader -> Shader parameters -> Adjust non-integer scale, x offset and y offset. The size will be consistant for most of my vertical bezels, but there are some that will need additional tweaking. It is a somewhat laborious process but I think its worth it.

For games that don't support portrait resolutions I use irotate to rotate the monitor before game launch and then rotate it back after launch. These are my settings.

 

 

thx a million!

"Options view is broken ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

Hey man. I experienced the same thing with my vertical theme. At one point @y2guru said he wasn't interested in messing with the options page stuff, but then I think he might have changed his mind about it? I'm not really sure. I asked Faeran for permission to use his options code on my theme and I kind of repurposed it a bit to make it work. Perhaps @Jason Carr could take a look and see if there is a way to scale the font sizes down in the options page while in vertical orientation. As it is now, browsing the *default* options page in vertical orientation is almost impossible.

Anyhow. Just wanted to drop by and let you know your theme is coming along nicely.

Take care.

1 minute ago, JaysArcade said:

"Options view is broken ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

Hey man. I experienced the same thing with my vertical theme. At one point @y2guru said he wasn't interested in messing with the options page stuff, but then I think he might have changed his mind about it? I'm not really sure. I asked Faeran for permission to use his options code on my theme and I kind of repurposed it a bit to make it work. Perhaps @Jason Carr could take a look and see if there is a way to scale the font sizes down in the options page while in vertical orientation. As it is now, browsing the *default* options page in vertical orientation is almost impossible.

Anyhow. Just wanted to drop by and let you know your theme is coming along nicely.

Take care.

The problem is if the options screen view breaks, then there is nothing you can do other than deleting and redownloading the theme, as you cant get into the options to change things. Thats why there is limited customization there, it needs to work, always. Same reason why you cant directly edit the default theme, we always need a available working theme to fall back to.

8 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

The problem is if the options screen view breaks, then there is nothing you can do other than deleting and redownloading the theme, as you cant get into the options to change things. Thats why there is limited customization there, it needs to work, always. Same reason why you cant directly edit the default theme, we always need a available working theme to fall back to.

You're missing the point. For vertically oriented screens, it is broken - with any theme. As you say, "it needs to work, always". It doesn't. If the font simply scaled down in the options view when in vertical mode, we wouldn't need to change anything, eliminating the limited customization you refer to.

I challenge you to rotate your monitor vertically, go into portrait mode, and load a theme. Then go into options view. Tell me how you get along with that. Then tell me if vertical theme creators are not going to try to customize that creating more problems.

yeah I'd say if it can't scale to the screen and it leaves the user with an unusable UI it probably could use some changing.

All of the Options pages and screens are indeed themeable in recent versions of Big Box, so there shouldn't be anything holding theme developers back, from that perspective. Changing font sizes is very easy to do, even by hand.

I understand though if the Community Theme Creator doesn't support this yet; @y2guru's been busting his butt on it to meet the demands of the community (and they are very demanding lol).

19 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

All of the Options pages and screens are indeed themeable in recent versions of Big Box, so there shouldn't be anything holding theme developers back, from that perspective. Changing font sizes is very easy to do, even by hand.

I understand though if the Community Theme Creator doesn't support this yet; @y2guru's been busting his butt on it to meet the demands of the community (and they are very demanding lol).

Thanks Jason!  to everyone following this topic.... I will complete the last feature for the Theme Creator and then I will circle back to address some of the gaps such as options etc..

I understand running a full time vertical screen is a pretty niche endeavor. I appreciate the ability to use Bigbox along with the theme creator to make it work for me. Keep up the good work guys!

Thank you Jason and y2guru. I looked into changing the font scaling myself by hand, but I was a little lost when I looked into it. That's why I love the Theme Creator so much. I do appreciate everything you guys do. Sorry if my comment sounded demanding or accusatory. In defending my position it may have sounded that way, but it wasn't my intent.