LaunchBox Multi Monitor and BigBox +3rd monitor plugin 1.2.1

10 minutes ago, Sbaby said:

but now I have tried the option "KEEP IMAGE(S) VISIBLE DURING GAMEPLAY" and unfortunately it is not visible

If you enabled it in MultiMonitor Setup, did you click Save before exiting?

Can you zip up attach the Logs folder?  (\LaunchBox\Plugins\MultiMonitor2022\Logs\)

1 hour ago, JoeViking245 said:

If you enabled it in MultiMonitor Setup, did you click Save before exiting?

Yes, save !

1 hour ago, JoeViking245 said:

Can you zip up attach the Logs folder?  (\LaunchBox\Plugins\MultiMonitor2022\Logs\)

Logs.zip

15 hours ago, Sbaby said:

but now I have tried the option "KEEP IMAGE(S) VISIBLE DURING GAMEPLAY" and unfortunately it is not visible

To clarify, when you select a game (i.e. Mortal Kombat) it shows the image (\Images\Game Controls\Arcade\mk.png) on Monitor #2.  But then when you launch the game, the image on Monitor #2 goes away?

Does the image reappear (on Monitor #2) after you exit the game?

 

Looking through the logs, I see that you had just LB 2nd Monitor turned on (via settings).  Then later on, you turned LB 3rd Monitor on but set both of them to use your (physical) Monitor #2.  And then later, turned off LB 3rd Monitor. 

Setting them both to the same physical monitor during runtime might have confused the plugin.  Turning off LB 3rd Monitor (or assigning it to a physical 3rd monitor), saving, and then restarting LaunchBox should fix it.  

6 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

To clarify, when you select a game (i.e. Mortal Kombat) it shows the image (\Images\Game Controls\Arcade\mk.png) on Monitor #2.  But then when you launch the game, the image on Monitor #2 goes away?

Does the image reappear (on Monitor #2) after you exit the game?

When I select a game (i.e. Mortal Kombat) it shows the image (\Images\Game Controls\Arcade\mk.png) on Monitor #2.  But then when you launch the game, the image on Monitor #2 goes away

The image does not reappear (on Monitor #2) after you exit the game. It reappears if I select another game and return to Mortal Kombat

 

6 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Looking through the logs, I see that you had just LB 2nd Monitor turned on (via settings).  Then later on, you turned LB 3rd Monitor on but set both of them to use your (physical) Monitor #2.  And then later, turned off LB 3rd Monitor. 

Setting them both to the same physical monitor during runtime might have confused the plugin.  Turning off LB 3rd Monitor (or assigning it to a physical 3rd monitor), saving, and then restarting LaunchBox should fix it.  

These changes were due to the varied trials. Now I put everything as default, SAVED, but the situation does not change

2 hours ago, Sbaby said:

When I select a game (i.e. Mortal Kombat) it shows the image (\Images\Game Controls\Arcade\mk.png) on Monitor #2.  But then when you launch the game, the image on Monitor #2 goes away

The image does not reappear (on Monitor #2) after you exit the game. It reappears if I select another game and return to Mortal Kombat

I'm not sure what to tell you.  The part of the code that keeps/hides the image during gameplay wasn't touched with this latest beta release.  The only thing I can think of is that it wasn't working before beta-4.  At least not for you because it seems to be working here. 

Assuming it worked for you prior to beta-4, does it still not work if you change the image type(s) to something other than *Custom Folder?  Maybe try beta-3 again.?.  You'd need to delete "Setting.xml" prior to starting LaunchBox if you try beta-3 (or prior) and then re-run MultiMonitor Setup.

2 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

I'm not sure what to tell you.  The part of the code that keeps/hides the image during gameplay wasn't touched with this latest beta release.  The only thing I can think of is that it wasn't working before beta-4.  At least not for you because it seems to be working here. 

Assuming it worked for you prior to beta-4, does it still not work if you change the image type(s) to something other than *Custom Folder?  Maybe try beta-3 again.?.  You'd need to delete "Setting.xml" prior to starting LaunchBox if you try beta-3 (or prior) and then re-run MultiMonitor Setup.

I had never used this plugin before, it probably didn't work for me before either

7 minutes ago, Sbaby said:

I had never used this plugin before, it probably didn't work for me before either

Now you tell me!  lol

Open Settings.xml (with any text editor) and verify dontHide is set to True.  (it should be)

Start LaunchBox.

Select Mortal Kombat.

(Image should show on 2nd Monitor)

Start MK

If image disappears, press and hold the Alt key.  Press the Tab key once.  Keep holding Alt.  You should see 'a visual list' all the windows that are open.  Is one of them the 'missing' MK image?  If so, [STILL holding Alt] press Tab (one tap at a time) until that image window is selected.  Let go of Alt.  Does the mk image appear on monitor #1 (aka not on the 2nd monitor)?   (If you saw it when pressing alt+Tab, but not now after selecting it, that's OK.)  Since your monitor #2 is situated (per Windows) to the right of #1, Press the Windows key and the Right arrow key.  This will move it to Monitor #2.

Alt+Tab (like before) back to the game and exit it.

If all goes well, all should be well now. (aka, start a game with an image on the 2nd monitor and it should stay there when starting a game.)

8 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

Now you tell me!  lol

Open Settings.xml (with any text editor) and verify dontHide is set to True.  (it should be)

Start LaunchBox.

Select Mortal Kombat.

(Image should show on 2nd Monitor)

Start MK

If image disappears, press and hold the Alt key.  Press the Tab key once.  Keep holding Alt.  You should see 'a visual list' all the windows that are open.  Is one of them the 'missing' MK image?  If so, [STILL holding Alt] press Tab (one tap at a time) until that image window is selected.  Let go of Alt.  Does the mk image appear on monitor #1 (aka not on the 2nd monitor)?   (If you saw it when pressing alt+Tab, but not now after selecting it, that's OK.)  Since your monitor #2 is situated (per Windows) to the right of #1, Press the Windows key and the Right arrow key.  This will move it to Monitor #2.

Alt+Tab (like before) back to the game and exit it.

If all goes well, all should be well now. (aka, start a game with an image on the 2nd monitor and it should stay there when starting a game.)

ok, with this way the image appears but I find it too cumbersome, I don't like it

With ALT-TAB eccetera the image does not appear on monitor 1, but immediately correctly on monitor 2, the next time with a new game the situation does not change

1 hour ago, Sbaby said:

ok, with this way the image appears but I find it too cumbersome, I don't like it

Well, it wasn't supposed to be a "just do this every time".  So, "If all goes well" turned out it didn't go well.

 

1 hour ago, Sbaby said:

With ALT-TAB eccetera the image does not appear on monitor 1, but immediately correctly on monitor 2, the next time with a new game the situation does not change

OK. That tells me it's still "on" the 2nd monitor [almost] like it's supposed to be. (...and you never needed to press Win+Right-Arrow.)

Is something (i.e. some other window) covering up the image when you start a game?  Then Alt+Tab brings it back 'above' whatever covered it? 

Or is, when starting a game, the image seems like it's 'minimizing', and you see the actual desktop on the 2nd monitor where the image was? (At least until you Alt+Tab to 'bring it up')

11 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Well, it wasn't supposed to be a "just do this every time".  So, "If all goes well" turned out it didn't go well.

 

OK. That tells me it's still "on" the 2nd monitor [almost] like it's supposed to be. (...and you never needed to press Win+Right-Arrow.)

Is something (i.e. some other window) covering up the image when you start a game?  Then Alt+Tab brings it back 'above' whatever covered it? 

Or is, when starting a game, the image seems like it's 'minimizing', and you see the actual desktop on the 2nd monitor where the image was? (At least until you Alt+Tab to 'bring it up')

I realized that it doesn't work with mame and other emulators, instead it works fine for me with retroarch, hypseus singe etc.

In the end I think it's all still related to the usual problems I have with launchbox minimizations and maximizations, I've described it in other posts

To solve my problem (and I think others) you should put in a programming such that it detects when the emulator is finally at the end of its loading and that is when the game is maximized the image should force itself to remaximize

Another problem :

I also activated the third monitor for Bigbox, and this happens :

 

 

Without starting the game, when I am in the choice screen of all games the image appears perfectly on the left monitor

 

 

While when I select a game and enter its details the image disappears

58 minutes ago, Sbaby said:

I realized that it doesn't work with mame and other emulators, instead it works fine for me with retroarch, hypseus singe etc.

In the end I think it's all still related to the usual problems I have with launchbox minimizations and maximizations, I've described it in other posts

For the ones that it 'doesn't work with':

1. Is something (i.e. some other window) covering up the image when you start a game?  Then Alt+Tab brings it back 'above' whatever covered it? 
2. Or is, when starting a game, the image seems like it's 'minimizing', and you see the actual desktop on the 2nd monitor where the image was? (At least until you Alt+Tab to 'bring it up')

If it's the latter, for those emulators, are you running any batch files or AHK scripts along with them to help deal with your 'usual problems' that may be minimizing the plugins' image window?

 

1 hour ago, Sbaby said:

To solve my problem (and I think others) you should put in a programming such that it detects when the emulator is finally at the end of its loading and that is when the game is maximized the image should force itself to remaximize

I'm not sure why the image window would be getting minimized.  A game launching on the primary monitor (min, max, windowed or otherwise) should have no effect on a static window located on the 2nd monitor. And I have no code in there that minimizes the image window.  Are you running any batch files or AHK scripts when launching games to help deal with your 'usual problems' that may be minimizing the plugins' image window?  If so, you might have them only target the specific windows causing you usual issues.  Like have it target only windows that are on the primary monitor.

57 minutes ago, Sbaby said:

Another problem :

I also activated the third monitor for Bigbox, and this happens :

 

Without starting the game, when I am in the choice screen of all games the image appears perfectly on the left monitor

While when I select a game and enter its details the image disappears

Thanks!  Though I don't have a 3rd monitor to test with, I'll see if I can conjure up something to detect when a user enters the BigBox Game Details Screen.

@JoeViking245

for mame you were right and I apologize, I had a minimize launchbox at game startup, removing this option the image to the second monitor works

I have a more serious problem now, though.

Now the plugin has banged itself up, pressing the display identification button doesn't detect the numbering as it is detected by windows and reverses my displays 1 and 3, so the image goes under the game. i don't understand why it does it now

The windows identification of the monitors does not match the launchbox identification, maybe that is also why I have various problems

 

I have four monitors, 

Display 2 corresponds to my TV and I only activate it when I need to play it from the couch by pressing WIN+P and selecting SECOND SCREEN ONLY.

The three main monitors on the other hand are all active and are selectable with WIN+P as EXTEND

 

In the image below I have the nvidia panel detecting the situation in EXTEND :

 

 

 

The Windows screens panel detects the same thing :

 

So :

4 - 1 - 3 - ( 2 Off )

 

Instead Launchbox detects

2 - 3 - 1

🤔

Edited February 14 by Sbaby

16 minutes ago, Sbaby said:

@JoeViking245

for mame you were right and I apologize, I had a minimize launchbox at game startup, removing this option the image to the second monitor works

I have a more serious problem now, though.

Now the plugin has banged itself up, pressing the display identification button doesn't detect the numbering as it is detected by windows and reverses my displays 1 and 3, so the image goes under the game. i don't understand why it does it now

The windows identification of the monitors does not match the launchbox identification, maybe that is also why I have various problems

Glad to hear the 2nd monitor is working.  

Were the displays detected properly before?  Which I guess wouldn't make sense because minimizing LaunchBox wouldn't affect the monitor numbering order.

Might try this if it isn't this way already...  Open your Windows Display Settings. Where the 3 monitors are shown, align them side-by-side and then (the important part) align the TOPS of all three.  (not the bottoms).  

1 hour ago, JoeViking245 said:

Glad to hear the 2nd monitor is working.  

Were the displays detected properly before?  Which I guess wouldn't make sense because minimizing LaunchBox wouldn't affect the monitor numbering order.

Might try this if it isn't this way already...  Open your Windows Display Settings. Where the 3 monitors are shown, align them side-by-side and then (the important part) align the TOPS of all three.  (not the bottoms).  

I think when I edited the previous post maybe you had already responded and didn't read the whole thing. Had you seen the pictures ?

 

 

EDIT : 

I solved it by reinstalling nvidia drivers, this sounds crazy to me but now finally launchbox numbering matches windows numbering

 

 

 

Edited February 14 by Sbaby

1 hour ago, Sbaby said:

EDIT : 

I solved it by reinstalling nvidia drivers, this sounds crazy to me but now finally launchbox numbering matches windows numbering

Yay!  Glad to hear it was a simple fix!

On 2/13/2024 at 2:23 PM, Sbaby said:

Another problem :

I also activated the third monitor for Bigbox, and this happens :

 

 

Without starting the game, when I am in the choice screen of all games the image appears perfectly on the left monitor

 

 

While when I select a game and enter its details the image disappears

Hi @JoeViking245 how are you? 🙂

I wanted news if you have tried to solve this problem? I would like to solve it, I like the plugin.
The problem only affects BigBox

Then I wanted to report that with the custom folder Launchbox\Images\Game Controls the images show correctly in all arcade games while MS-DOS games show me the boxfront instead of the custom folder image.

The reason is because for my ms-dos images I used the game ID number as the image name... In fact I tried renaming one by putting the full name of the rom and it works, I should rename them all, it's not a big deal but I just wanted to know if it's faster to implement reading the id as well

Edited May 4 by Sbaby

18 hours ago, Sbaby said:

I wanted news if you have tried to solve this problem? I would like to solve it, I like the plugin.

I looked at my note regarding fixing the image disappearing when entering the Game Details screen in BB, just the other day.  Then thought to myself, I really should look at that someday.  Well, 'someday' turned into 'Sunday', and I think I got a fix.  (I just hope it didn't mess up something else down-the-chain.)

 

Beta Version   1.1.5-beta-5           MultiMonitor2022 (v1.1.5 beta-5) .7z

Fixed:  3rd monitor image disappearing when entering Game Details (BigBox)

 

18 hours ago, Sbaby said:

my ms-dos images I used the game ID number as the image name

As in the LaunchBox Database ID #?  Do images named in that fashion show in LB/BB otherwise?  Do you have other image types named after the ID#?  I thought they had to be name either the same as the ROM name or the games Title (barring any invalid character changes).

Though I do create some off-beat (possibly 'impractical') plugins, I do usually try to stick with LaunchBox standard conventions for consistency's sake.  Such as image file names.  If using the ID #'s works elsewhere in LB/BB, I'll look into it.  But unless I missed 'the memo', I don't think they do.

5 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

I looked at my note regarding fixing the image disappearing when entering the Game Details screen in BB, just the other day.  Then thought to myself, I really should look at that someday.  Well, 'someday' turned into 'Sunday', and I think I got a fix.  (I just hope it didn't mess up something else down-the-chain.)

 

Beta Version   1.1.5-beta-5           MultiMonitor2022 (v1.1.5 beta-5) .7z

Fixed:  3rd monitor image disappearing when entering Game Details (BigBox)

Thanks for new beta ☺️

In the game details section of bigbox now both images are correctly visible, unfortunately however starting the game and during play the marquee image disappears resulting in a black screen on the left... that leaves the game in the center and the controls on the right....
My guess is that the marquee image is reduced to an icon, I don't know for what reason.

-----------------------

I also wanted to ask you, how come in launchbox the boxfront is shown and instead in bigbox the marquee is shown ? also are launchbox and bigbox screens reversed 👇

-----------------------

5 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

As in the LaunchBox Database ID #?  Do images named in that fashion show in LB/BB otherwise?  Do you have other image types named after the ID#?  I thought they had to be name either the same as the ROM name or the games Title (barring any invalid character changes).

Though I do create some off-beat (possibly 'impractical') plugins, I do usually try to stick with LaunchBox standard conventions for consistency's sake.  Such as image file names.  If using the ID #'s works elsewhere in LB/BB, I'll look into it.  But unless I missed 'the memo', I don't think they do.

As for naming, and for dos games only, i am forced to keep the image name with the game id number because otherwise in the pause menu it is not displayed, if i use the rom name it is displayed correctly by your plugin instead it is not displayed in the pause menu, if i keep the name as the id number instead it is not displayed by your plugin but it is displayed in the pause menu

Edited May 5 by Sbaby

2 hours ago, Sbaby said:

In the game details section of bigbox now both images are correctly visible, unfortunately however starting the game and during play the marquee image disappears resulting in a black screen on the left... that leaves the game in the center and the controls on the right....
My guess is that the marquee image is reduced to an icon, I don't know for what reason.

In BigBox, the marquee image is set on the "2nd Monitor" by BigBox.  The plugin only adds an image to the "3rd monitor" and doesn't touch the 2nd (unless in the plugins setup menu, that's what you chose).  So not sure what's going on.  Now, which monitor is considered the "2nd" and the "3rd" might be different between what Windows says and what BB says.

 

2 hours ago, Sbaby said:

I also wanted to ask you, how come in launchbox the boxfront is shown and instead in bigbox the marquee is shown ? also are launchbox and bigbox screens reversed

LaunchBox doesn't have the built-in possibility for a marquee image.  Hence the plugin.  The image type(s) shown are based on what you chose in the plugins setup menu as well as which monitor they're displayed on.  Take a look at the setup menu or look at the log files (the ones that start with "LB" are for LaunchBox and "BB" for BigBox).  They'll tell you what Image you set as default and fallback, and for which monitor #.  

 

2 hours ago, Sbaby said:

i am forced to keep the image name with the game id number because otherwise in the pause menu it is not displayed,

This "ID number" is the 'LaunchBox database ID #'?  Sounds like you're using a custom Pause Menu which displays the image on the menu itself.  Modify the custom Pause Menu to look for conventional file names.  Or better yet, have the pause menu display a different image since you already have 'that' image being displayed on another monitor by the plugin.  

1 hour ago, JoeViking245 said:

In BigBox, the marquee image is set on the "2nd Monitor" by BigBox.  The plugin only adds an image to the "3rd monitor" and doesn't touch the 2nd (unless in the plugins setup menu, that's what you chose).  So not sure what's going on.  Now, which monitor is considered the "2nd" and the "3rd" might be different between what Windows says and what BB says.

 

it works . the main problem is that ingame the left image minimizes, it disappears and leaves the left screen black (bigbox only)

 

1 hour ago, JoeViking245 said:

This "ID number" is the 'LaunchBox database ID #'? 

Yes, but only for dos games. The other categories have roms names. The pause menu is yours. I am not going to change the pause menu. There have been years of work to keep the visual structure. I can't change it. It also works well with image id names for dos games, while for others it uses rom names.

Another question :

the pause menu shows me the default platform controls image if it doesn't find the single game image. I like this...Is it possible to implement this for the custom plugin folder as well?

 

 

12 hours ago, Sbaby said:

it works . the main problem is that ingame the left image minimizes, it disappears and leaves the left screen black (bigbox only)

Pretty certain it's not a plugin issue.  If you press and hold Alt, then tap TAB, while continuing to hold Alt, is one of the open windows the marquee?  If you tap TAB (still holding Alt) until you get to the marquee, then release Alt, does the marquee (re)appear on the monitor?  If you revert back to v1.1.5-beta-4, does it still minimize/disappear?

 

12 hours ago, Sbaby said:

The pause menu is yours. .... It also works well with image id names for dos games, while for others it uses rom names.

Can you remind me about my pause menu? Link to the post?  I'm drawing a blank about a pause menu I created that uses database ID #'s and ROM names. (old age. )

11 hours ago, Sbaby said:

the pause menu shows me the default platform controls image if it doesn't find the single game image. I like this...Is it possible to implement this for the custom plugin folder as well?

Still drawing a blank.  (I'll probably be super embarrassed when you share the post.)

7 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Pretty certain it's not a plugin issue.  If you press and hold Alt, then tap TAB, while continuing to hold Alt, is one of the open windows the marquee?  If you tap TAB (still holding Alt) until you get to the marquee, then release Alt, does the marquee (re)appear on the monitor?  If you revert back to v1.1.5-beta-4, does it still minimize/disappear?

You are right wulla the issue of the marquee minimizing, I found that the problem that windows window has the stesos name of launchbox so when I start mame it minimizes BigBox and Launchbox to avoid that annoying problem of the keypress below, so it automatically minimizes also the image of that screen on the left. The ideal solution for me would be to ask you if it is possible to also add the second BigBox image and disable the original program image. In fact, your plugin's image, the one to the right of the controls, does not minimize and always remains active even while playing the game. And in fact in LaunchBox I don't have any problem, the problem resides only with Bigbox in because the left image has the name of the window identical to that of BigBox 

 

7 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Can you remind me about my pause menu? Link to the post?  I'm drawing a blank about a pause menu I created that uses database ID #'s and ROM names. (old age. )

I must apologize to you, I confused you with another user, the pause themes I use are GameControlsFS and GameControls by Retro808 . The images you see of my controls have a space to the left and right because during the pause menu they are automatically filled by the bigbox options and the images that are automatically loaded by the pause theme. That's why I don't want to change my methods otherwise I would have to redo all the slamming of calibrating the images
 

7 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Still drawing a blank.  (I'll probably be super embarrassed when you share the post.)

For this point maybe I didn't explain myself well, I would simply like you to implement in the multimonitor plugin and as far as the custom folder is concerned, the ability to show the default images of the platforms when the plugin doesn't find the image of the specific rom I was just pointing out to you that my theme already does this and I'm fine with it, I would like the multimonitor plugin to behave this way as well, this is because the default controls for the various consoles are only one for all games