ThirdScreen Plugin for Platform Video Marquees, 3+ Screen Support, and more 5.0.13

21 minutes ago, izzishor said:

Help? Apparently ThirdScreen identifies my monitors differently than BigBox and as a result I can't have a Marquee because it thinks Marquee is Monitor 3, while monitor 3 is in fact my main CRT main monitor...  and from time to time this error arises on my arcade... anyway to bypass it? I tried looking in the config but it doesn't seem I can do anything about it... 

 

 

Windows can get weird sometimes with display numbering. I'll add an option to bypass that check.

1 hour ago, superrob3000 said:

Windows can get weird sometimes with display numbering. I'll add an option to bypass that check.

Damn, I can't thank you enough, I can temporarily fix it by deleting the GPU configuration and connectivity registry entries, but it gets screwed up again eventually.

 

I really wish your plugin would be embedded in launchbox, really can't do without it.

 

Thanks again, and no rush from me, whenever you have the time ❤️

Hello. Now I'm transferring my arcade machine from Hyperspin to BIGBOX.  I have 2 additional screens in the arcade machine, I use ledblinky, I also have an elgato stream deck through which I also launched games from the hyperspin interface.
This is how the script for launching the game looked like, when i used Hyperspin.
run C:\eds\ledblinky.exe 3 "hotd2" "Sega naomi"
run D:\arcade\rocketlauncher\rocketlauncher.exe "Sega naomi" "hotd2"
the first line of the script drew pictures on additional screens using eds and hypermarquee.
The second line launched the game together with ledblinky (ledblinky was included in rocketlauncher)
In the BIGBOX, I can launch the game via rocketlauncher, I can also send the ledblinky command. It remains to display pictures on additional screens. How to do it using ThirdScreen Plugin? how the script should look like?

No scripts needed. Just follow the directions on the file description page. There is a GUI to add your additional screens and choose which art you want to display on each one.

1 hour ago, superrob3000 said:

No scripts needed. Just follow the directions on the file description page. There is a GUI to add your additional screens and choose which art you want to display on each one.

You probably misunderstood me. The plugin works great in bigbox. But I need to be able to run the game with my streamdeсk, it uses scripts. 

On 10/22/2023 at 11:23 AM, Vitaly17 said:

You probably misunderstood me. The plugin works great in bigbox. But I need to be able to run the game with my streamdeсk, it uses scripts. 

Ah, I see. That won't be possible with thirdscreen. It will only work if you launch the game from launchbox or bigbox.

(Edit 12/17/2023: You can now use my "CLI Launcher" plugin to add stream deck shortcuts that launch games directly through LaunchBox/BigBox instead of RocketLauncher. ThirdScreen marquees and LED Blinky will get updated automatically.)

Edited December 17, 2023 by superrob3000

v3.0.0 is now available. @izzishor if you click the gear icon in the upper right, there is now an option to disable the check for a BigBox main screen conflict which was causing you trouble.

Edited October 24, 2023 by superrob3000

Tested and works perfectly, both bypasses I have set to on for me, weirder arcade or setup I guess, but this does the job immaculately, thank you again for all the work, the fact that you can choose what artwork to place and on which monitor, amazing ❤️

Love the plugin. Is there anyway for it to cycle between a selected games static marquee and video?

I just wanted to say thanks this is brilliant  Thankyou @Superrob300

Hey Rob, would it be possible to show a games metadata with this plugin?

@superrob3000 First I wasn't to say thank you for your work, this looks amazing! I've not yet invested in a stretched screen or anything yet, but I intend too sometime soon. I have a few compatibility questions I wanted to ask. 

1) Are there any compatibility issues using this in Windows 7? I've opted out of ever upgrading to 10+ simply for the fear of having to test games, reinstall games or apps, re-write scripts, etc... as the time commitment feels too large, at least for the time being. 

2) I'm still on an old version of LB/BB (9.7). I see your tool says it requires 13+. What doesn't work on versions prior to 13? Its obviously been years since I've upgraded LB/BB, if I do, will any settings need to be reconfigured or anything or is it a seamless upgrade? (Sorry, probably a dumb question its just that I haven't done this in a very long time!)

3) Now having a sense of my older setup, any other gotchas or compatibility concerns you have or would point out?

 

Thanks in advance!

9 hours ago, bojo5150 said:

@superrob3000 First I wasn't to say thank you for your work, this looks amazing! I've not yet invested in a stretched screen or anything yet, but I intend too sometime soon. I have a few compatibility questions I wanted to ask. 

1) Are there any compatibility issues using this in Windows 7? I've opted out of ever upgrading to 10+ simply for the fear of having to test games, reinstall games or apps, re-write scripts, etc... as the time commitment feels too large, at least for the time being. 

2) I'm still on an old version of LB/BB (9.7). I see your tool says it requires 13+. What doesn't work on versions prior to 13? Its obviously been years since I've upgraded LB/BB, if I do, will any settings need to be reconfigured or anything or is it a seamless upgrade? (Sorry, probably a dumb question its just that I haven't done this in a very long time!)

3) Now having a sense of my older setup, any other gotchas or compatibility concerns you have or would point out?

 

Thanks in advance!

My guess is that it should work fine on windows 7 but I've never tested it. However it will most likely crash at startup if you try to use it with Launchbox 9.7. It relies on some things (like rotating 3d box models for example) that weren't available in Launchbox back then.

Hello!

Is it possible to get something like what default plus theme is doing 

 

It takes randomly game wallpaper/fanart and displays logo on top of it. In a fade effect?

So far i see , there is only option to display one or the other, not mix of both?

 

Edited February 10 by Undertherainbow

12 minutes ago, Undertherainbow said:

Is it possible to get something like what default plus theme is doing .....

12 minutes ago, Undertherainbow said:

So far i see , there is only option to display one or the other, not mix of both?

 

@Undertherainbow Thanks for the suggestion. You are correct that currently it will display one or the other and not overlay them. When I have time I'll look into it and see if it's something I want to add. The hardest part with adding options like this is usually how to keep the user interface simple (not so much the implementation).

Edited February 10 by superrob3000

8 minutes ago, superrob3000 said:

@Undertherainbow Thanks for the suggestion. You are correct that currently it will display one or the other and not overlay them. When I have time I'll look into it and see if it's something I want to add. The hardest part with adding options like this is usually how to keep the user interface simple (not so much the implementation).

Maybe you could do this by introducing 'mixer'?

example: second part of tool, in which you can do above, select choice "background + X(logo?)" and produce mix of it.

it would be a simple call to both elements from launchbox with lets say style : fade or others? 

its base what themes are already doing

 

Then on main app window just give option to inject that in the list. 

 

Edited February 10 by Undertherainbow

I apologize if I missed this, but is there any way to add a transition effect in between marquees? For example, I think the native marquee support fades out the old while fading in the new. Not a deal breaker, but figured I'd ask!

5 minutes ago, whg said:

I apologize if I missed this, but is there any way to add a transition effect in between marquees? For example, I think the native marquee support fades out the old while fading in the new. Not a deal breaker, but figured I'd ask!

No, not currently.

On 3/10/2024 at 6:03 PM, superrob3000 said:

No, not currently.

No worries! I'm wondering - I noticed a strange behavior shortly after installing the plug-in and I want to test uninstalling it to see if the behavior reverts back to original as well. I renamed the Plugins folder to Plugins (old), but the Thirdparty folder appears to overwrote some files, and of course, I didn't attempt to back up the originals beforehand. Do you have an easy way to uninstall so I can test, or can you tell me which files specifically I need to recover? And do you know an easier way of getting the originals rather than re-installing LB?

31 minutes ago, whg said:

No worries! I'm wondering - I noticed a strange behavior shortly after installing the plug-in and I want to test uninstalling it to see if the behavior reverts back to original as well. I renamed the Plugins folder to Plugins (old), but the Thirdparty folder appears to overwrote some files, and of course, I didn't attempt to back up the originals beforehand. Do you have an easy way to uninstall so I can test, or can you tell me which files specifically I need to recover? And do you know an easier way of getting the originals rather than re-installing LB?

The plugin doesn't overwrite any Launchbox files. All of the files in the release are unique to thirdscreen. So to uninstall just download and unzip the latest release to get the file list and then delete all of those files from your Launchbox folder.

14 hours ago, superrob3000 said:

The plugin doesn't overwrite any Launchbox files. All of the files in the release are unique to thirdscreen. So to uninstall just download and unzip the latest release to get the file list and then delete all of those files from your Launchbox folder.

Got it - thanks!

I didn't see it listed anywhere, maybe someone knows. Can this be modified to use the "gamemarqueeview.xaml" file for the marquee. I made custom dynamic marquees with the theme creator and I'd like to continue using those if I can. Really, all I'm looking to do is keep my marquees from shifting any time I launch a game that changes my resolution thats lower than my desktop resolution. I heard this program can do that, but it looks like it just pulls in images from a directory.

10 minutes ago, flanx said:

I didn't see it listed anywhere, maybe someone knows. Can this be modified to use the "gamemarqueeview.xaml" file for the marquee. I made custom dynamic marquees with the theme creator and I'd like to continue using those if I can. Really, all I'm looking to do is keep my marquees from shifting any time I launch a game that changes my resolution thats lower than my desktop resolution. I heard this program can do that, but it looks like it just pulls in images from a directory.

You can't use the xaml file but the plugin shouldn't have any issues displaying your custom marquee files as long as you have added them as marquees in LaunchBox.

@flanx also if all you are looking for is a fix for the shifting issue, you could try putting your marquee to the right of your main monitor in display settings.

Thank you for the prompt response. The issue is my marquees are not actual images. The background I use for them is a saved PNG. but the marquees are dynamically created using a combination of clear logo art, box art and cartridge art. Its so I can have marquees for all games and they all match my category marquees. I attached a video showing this. Currently my marquee display is on the right in display properties, thats the only place it works and I still get the shifting marquees when resolution changes. Its the weirdest thing, when I have my display set to 1080p, I can have the marquee display on the left and it doesn't shift when the resolution changes. But when I change it to 4k, it no longer works when its in any position but the right side of the main monitor. I could keep the monitor in 1080p, but some modern Steam games, like Mortal Kombat 11 and cuphead (to name a couple) use your desktop resolution and cannot change it to 4K unless your desktop resolution is set to 4K. I have a nice gaming machine and a 48in 4K 120hz OLED in my cabinet, so I'd like to take advantage of it if I can, but if I'm stuck at 1080p, then thats the way it has to be so my nice marquees stay visible.