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

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About This File


This plugin adds enhanced Marquee capabilities plus support for unlimited screens.

- Enhanced Marquee Capabilities:

  • Adds support for Platform Video Marquees, Playlist Video Marquees, and Platform Category Video Marquees.
  • Adds support for Marquee Startup Videos.
  • Adds support for animated gif files.
  • Fixes marquee shift issue for TeknoParrot games.
  • Marquee(s) will work in LaunchBox, not just in BigBox.
  • Adds optional blur-fill background effect when media is not stretched to fit the entire screen (as of v2.0.10).

- Support for a 3rd screen or unlimited additional screens each displaying their own priority based list of media.

- Each screen has access to ALL media that has been imported to LaunchBox (all images, all videos, plus rotating 3D box models!)

- Graphical user interface for setting up screens. Your theme files do not get modified.

- Ability to stretch or not stretch based on the media type being shown on each screen.

- Screens are tracked by GPU port stable IDs, so nothing will ever break due to Windows re-ordering display  numbers.

 

Demo Videos:

 

 

 

Installation:

  1. *** Before installing, please make sure you are using the latest version of LaunchBox. Version 13.0 or higher is required. ***
  2. Download ThirdScreen.zip to your PC. Right click on the zip file and extract all files.
  3. Close LaunchBox/BigBox and copy the Plugins and ThirdParty folders to your LaunchBox directory.

 

Adding a new screen:

1. If you are setting up your main Marquee screen, you'll first need to disable the Marquee in BigBox settings in order to transfer control of it over to ThirdScreen.  Open BigBox. Hit escape to go to BigBox settings. Go to Options->General->Marquee Screen and set it to "None".

 BB_marquee_none..thumb.PNG.8e6865c4288cdd3e8aec1da9add3b500.PNG

2. Select ThirdScreen Settings either from the Tools dropdown in LaunchBox or the settings screen in BigBox.

SettingsOpen.thumb.PNG.645997aa8f09dbd2435e53602ad198eb.PNG

3. In the ThirdScreen Settings app choose "Add Screen" in the upper left.

AddScreen.PNG.bc847cc233f71edf0953edba4bd0ab82.PNG

4. Give this screen a name. If this is your main marquee, make sure "Start with typical marquee media" is checked - this will start you off with the typical expected media for a main marque (e.g. marquee videos, marquee images, banner images, clear logos, etc...). Then hit Continue.

AddScreen2.PNG.662cbe91c358443d2d5a8b4408f42444.PNG

5. Click "Identify Displays" and take note of the name displayed on the desired display. Then choose
the corresponding display name from the "Choose Display" drop down menu.

image.thumb.png.8b9a0f60741d9eb34c2608bc85310162.png

 

 

Choosing which media shows on each screen:

1. Select a screen from your list of existing screens.

SelectScreen.PNG.8387c15be3dca9d2125434fbe3a1c4e6.PNG

2. Add desired media to both the game and platform views for this screen. (Tip: You can hover over most drop down boxes and controls to get a more detailed description of what each one does).

TSCP_Screenshot.thumb.PNG.bc2898f5b54bf36d096bedb87b3e8252.PNG

3. Adjust the priority of each media item up or down (items higher on the list have higher priority). ThirdScreen will search the selected game or platform's media starting from the top of the list and working its way down until it finds something to display.

TSCP_Screenshot_UPDOWN.thumb.png.e4553dd1d4b1073f0392fff45d701043.png

4. For each media item in your views you can choose whether or not to stretch fill the screen. If set to No, then the item will be uniformly stretched (aspect ratio will be preserved). If set  to Yes, the media will be stretched to fill the entire screen (aspect ratio will not be preserved).  (Your choice will depend on the type of media and the screen dimensions. For example, Marquee videos/images will look best stretch filled on a bar type display but not on a 16:9 aspect ratio display. Video snaps will look best stretch filled on a 16:9 aspect ratio display, but not on a bar type display.)

TSCP_Screenshot_Stretch.thumb.png.48a9a49a9052dddf5983bc740d38eb2d.png

 

 

Adding startup videos or images for each screen:

 

1. Select a screen from your list of existing screens.

SelectScreen.PNG.8387c15be3dca9d2125434fbe3a1c4e6.PNG

2. Click "Startup Video Folder" to open the startup folder for this screen. Copy any media you want to be displayed at startup for this screen into this folder. Video files and static images are supported. If there is more than one item in the folder, ThirdScreen will choose one of them randomly to display at startup.

Startup2.thumb.PNG.4d8d699fd9ee336adf717bc37d7e5b0c.PNG

 

 

Adding Platform Marquee Videos, Playlist Marquee Videos, and Platform Category Marquee Videos:

1. In LaunchBox select Tools->"Manage Platform/Playlist Video Marquees"

image.thumb.png.cde723be040b883a0407576c4243a9a3.png

2. From here you can add and manage video marquee files for Platforms, Playlists, and Platform Categories. Once added, they will be available for display using the ThirdScreen Plugin.

Screenshot3.thumb.PNG.35ddec18add135a4f92df74297d29d02.PNG

 

 

FAQs:

Q. How many screens are supported?

  A. As many as you want. The only limit is the number of hdmi or display ports on your PC.

Q. Can I use this Plugin if I only have a single marquee screen?

  A. Yes, if you don't have a third screen you can still use this for your main marquee. That will get you the added benefits of platform marquee videos, animated gif support, marquee startup videos, etc.

Q. If I choose to display 3D box models, how can I rotate them?

  A. The 3D box models will be self-rotating. They will continuously spin while being displayed (no need for any user input).

Q. In Game View, what's the difference between "Add Game's Parent Platform Media" and "Add Current Platform/Playlist Media"? Which one should I choose?

  A. It just depends on your preference when viewing Playlists. When scrolling games in a platform wheel, it will not make any difference which of the two dropdown lists you chose from. When scrolling games in a playlist wheel choose "Add Game's Parent Platform Media" if you want the media to change depending on the type of game (for example, the playlist might be a mix of NES, Wii, and Arcade games). Choose "Add Current Platform/Playlist Media" if you instead want to always display the Playlist's media (for example the marquee or theme video from your Favorites playlist).

Q. Will my Theme xaml files get modified?

  A. No, the plugin never touches your theme files. You are free to switch and add new themes whenever you want.

Q. How can I delete/modify media in LaunchBox if it is currently being displayed by ThirdScreen?

  A. You might sometimes run into a situation where you want to delete or modify a game's media files, but LaunchBox gives you an error because the media is in use. No problem, just temporarily disable ThirdScreen when in LaunchBox. Open the ThirdScreen settings app, click the gear icon in the upper right, and choose "Disabled when in LaunchBox".

Q. Why doesn't Platform view work for my marquee(s) when in LaunchBox?

  A. This has been fixed with version 2.0.6 of this plugin as long as you are on LaunchBox version 13.1-beta-6 or higher..

 

Troubleshooting Steps:

1. Make sure you are using the latest version of this plugin.

2. If this is your main marquee screen, please first double-check that you have disabled your marquee in BigBox settings. The ThirdScreen plugin will not attempt to use your marquee display if BigBox is using it.

3. If some image or video you've added isn't showing up when you expect it to, double-check that it is categorized correctly in LaunchBox. It's very easy to add media in LaunchBox and then forget to change its image or video type (I do that all the time).

4. If you are having an issue, please enable logging for both the ThirdScreen plugin and LaunchBox/BigBox, and then send me the log files after you try the thing that isn't working. The log files will be in the LaunchBox/Logs folder. To enable logging do the following:

  • For ThirdScreen: Tools->ThirdScreen Settings, click the gear icon in the upper right and choose "Debug Log File Enabled".
  • For LaunchBox/BigBox: Tools->Options->General->Debugging, check "Enable Debug Logs".

5. If LaunhBox/BigBox will not start at all after installing the dll files, make sure you are on version 13.0 or higher of LaunchBox and also try disabling any Pen or TouchScreen devices listed in Device Manager (there is currently a known conflict with the Windows Pen driver which is affecting some users)(Edit: This has been resolved in v2.0.13) 

6. If animated gif files aren't displaying for you, try running LaunchBox/BigBox with admin privileges. (Edit: This has been resolved in v2.0.11) 

7. If you are having issues with the ThirdScreen settings app reporting an incorrect resolution and/or your marquees being incorrectly sized, clipped, or off-center then it is most likely caused by dpi scaling. ThirdScreen v2.0.14 and higher should fix most scaling issues in both Win10 and Win11. 

8. This plugin tries to fix any marquee-shift issues when a game changes the main screen resolution. As of version 4.0.0 you can select between medium mode, aggressive mode, or disabled. Medium is the default mode and is recommended. If a game changes the screen resolution, medium mode will reposition all marquees to their correct locations. Aggressive mode also hides the BigBox window to ensure it does not end up covering one of the marquee screens. While aggressive mode works perfectly on mine and many other setups, some people have reported that it can interfere with game loading or exiting (including BigBox remaining hidden after exiting a game). If you run into those types of issues you should set the option back to medium mode or disabled. In LaunchBox, go to Tools->ThirdScreen Settings. Then click the gear icon in upper right and select "Medium Shift Handling".

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

Enjoy, and please follow the file to be notified of updates.

 

 

 

Edited by superrob3000


What's New in Version 5.0.13   See changelog

Released

When nothing is selected in LaunchBox mode, we now revert to the screen's startup media instead of a blank screen.

  • Like 10
  • Thanks 9
  • Unusual Gem 8

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9 minutes ago, flanx said:

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.

Nice job on the marquee view! Sorry I don't know of any other way to fix the shifting issue if not using the plugin.

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7 minutes ago, superrob3000 said:

Nice job on the marquee view! Sorry I don't know of any other way to fix the shifting issue if not using the plugin.

Thanks, it took quite a while to get everything working as it is.

No worries, I appreciate the reply. The search continues I guess lol I'll tinker around with your plugin and see what I can create.

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21 hours ago, flanx said:

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.

Bro these are amazing can you share these? I would love the get these? 

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58 minutes ago, Truest1 said:

Bro these are amazing can you share these? I would love the get these? 

Sorry, what is it you're asking for me to share?

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31 minutes ago, flanx said:

Sorry, what is it you're asking for me to share?

The marquee videos. 

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1 hour ago, Truest1 said:

The marquee videos. 

Got it. So my marquees aren't individual videos / images. I made a custom view in the theme creator that will dynamically create a marquee for any game for any console using the artwork already downloaded by Launchbox / Bigbox. My code is set to distinguish between arcade and console games. If a game categorized as "arcade" is selected, it will display the arcade marquee and if a console game is selected it will build the dynamic marquee. I've attached the files and instructions on where to place them, hope they're easy to follow. I also put all the png's for platform banners that have a matching background. It makes it all look cohesive. Let me know if you have questions. Enjoy!

Marquee Files.7z

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11 hours ago, flanx said:

Got it. So my marquees aren't individual videos / images. I made a custom view in the theme creator that will dynamically create a marquee for any game for any console using the artwork already downloaded by Launchbox / Bigbox. My code is set to distinguish between arcade and console games. If a game categorized as "arcade" is selected, it will display the arcade marquee and if a console game is selected it will build the dynamic marquee. I've attached the files and instructions on where to place them, hope they're easy to follow. I also put all the png's for platform banners that have a matching background. It makes it all look cohesive. Let me know if you have questions. Enjoy!

Marquee Files.7z 34.32 MB · 1 download

Thank you so much can't wait to try this. This can be applied to any theme? On any view for the theme? 

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3 hours ago, Truest1 said:

Thank you so much can't wait to try this. This can be applied to any theme? On any view for the theme? 

Its worked on all the themes I've tested it on.

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58 minutes ago, flanx said:

Its worked on all the themes I've tested it on.

Awesome. Can't wait to get back to try this. This is a brilliant idea. Never really seen this done before. 

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In your description, you say the only limit is the number of ports but that is only mostly true, I didn't look through all the comments but several apps let you use an iphone or Android device as an extra screen so theoretically the limit is limitless. You might even be able to add extra screens via Arduino or raspi over the network. Networking definitely presents a delay though. I am going to experiment with adding a digital movie poster display for box art when time and money allow. Space desk is the best for this application but I found better..... Duet Display, basically lets you use any other computer or device you have connected to the same network as an extra display, I think both also alow you to use USB as well. 

Edited by CaptainGreenhat
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Is there a means by which to lower the volume when using videos as a marquee? Changing volume in BigBox setting for videos doesn't seem to do the trick...they're quite loud compared with the rest of my computer's volume.

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@shadowblind Version 5.0.8 is now available. I added a setting to control the volume for each screen. To get to it, open ThirdScreen settings, select a screen, and click "Additional Screen Settings".

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20 minutes ago, superrob3000 said:

@shadowblind Version 5.0.8 is now available. I added a setting to control the volume for each screen. To get to it, open ThirdScreen settings, select a screen, and click "Additional Screen Settings".

Man, you are FAST! Thanks so much, this plugin is the best on Bigbox.

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This plug in is very cool! However, I'm finding a few limitations that are currently keeping me from using it... unless I'm missing something. I have an LG Ultrawide as my marquee and have created a custom marquee xml theme that I'm very happy with, but it has its own limitations as the default BigBox method (I would possibly like to add 1 more display in the future, and I really want to see what's going on with my marquee in LaunchBox). I see how you can create multiple screens on the same display, but they don't seem to be displaying simultaneously. My current xml theme shows the game marquee in the top 2/3 of the screen, and controller information on the bottom 1/3. Also in the bottom 1/3, I have it showing the original controller (arcade cpo or console controller) overlayed on top of my arcade control panel info. So I have 3 different dynamic medias on the same display. Is this currently possible with this plugin?

One thing I'm seeing is that I can assign my control panel info on the bottom 1/3, but there's no option for the top 2/3 for the marquee. I would also need a transparency option added to the 'black background' and 'blurred background' options for the original controller graphic overlay.

If this is not currently possible to match my xml theme, would these be possible in a future update?

Thanks!

455272047_1618044128757217_8671504666717659470_n.jpg

Edited by PanteraZombie
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2 hours ago, PanteraZombie said:

This plug in is very cool! However, I'm finding a few limitations that are currently keeping me from using it... unless I'm missing something. I have an LG Ultrawide as my marquee and have created a custom marquee xml theme that I'm very happy with, but it has its own limitations as the default BigBox method (I would possibly like to add 1 more display in the future, and I really want to see what's going on with my marquee in LaunchBox). I see how you can create multiple screens on the same display, but they don't seem to be displaying simultaneously. My current xml theme shows the game marquee in the top 2/3 of the screen, and controller information on the bottom 1/3. Also in the bottom 1/3, I have it showing the original controller (arcade cpo or console controller) overlayed on top of my arcade control panel info. So I have 3 different dynamic medias on the same display. Is this currently possible with this plugin?

One thing I'm seeing is that I can assign my control panel info on the bottom 1/3, but there's no option for the top 2/3 for the marquee. I would also need a transparency option added to the 'black background' and 'blurred background' options for the original controller graphic overlay.

If this is not currently possible to match my xml theme, would these be possible in a future update?

Thanks!

Thanks for the suggestions. I will keep them in mind for future updates. For now you'd be better off continuing to use theming to get things exactly how you want them.

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This plugin is awesome! You totally made my night! I been wanting marquees in LB forever. I like to make my own custom in PS, and switching to BB every time to view how it looks and switch back to LB sucked. Plus I like LB better most times for navigating my vast library. Now with your plugin I can work on my marquees in real time and is a huger overall improvement. Thanks a lot! Oh, and totally easy to setup once disabling BB marquee, it just works :)

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anyone having issues with launchbox with this pklug in after latest launchbox update? i also updated mame to latest rom set as well and now launchbox is acting uo freezing.  

i tried a few things but removing this plugin is the only thing that makes launchbox work again. it was working flawlesly for a longtime till now.

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5 minutes ago, Truest1 said:

anyone having issues with launchbox with this pklug in after latest launchbox update? i also updated mame to latest rom set as well and now launchbox is acting uo freezing.  

i tried a few things but removing this plugin is the only thing that makes launchbox work again. it was working flawlesly for a longtime till now.

Not seeing it on my end, and I'm a bit skeptical of your conclusion that this particular plugin is causing freezing as a result of a launchbox and/or mame update. Anything is possible though, so I won't rule it out. Either way, there isn't much for me to go on. If I ever do see  the same issue I'll look into it.

One thing I'd recommend is try disabling the blurred background option. The only slowdowns I've seen is when playing blurred video backgrounds on low spec systems (I ran into it using integrated graphics on my ROG ALLY, but I've never had an issue with it when using a proper video card). 

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43 minutes ago, superrob3000 said:

Not seeing it on my end, and I'm a bit skeptical of your conclusion that this particular plugin is causing freezing as a result of a launchbox and/or mame update. Anything is possible though, so I won't rule it out. Either way, there isn't much for me to go on. If I ever do see  the same issue I'll look into it.

One thing I'd recommend is try disabling the blurred background option. The only slowdowns I've seen is when playing blurred video backgrounds on low spec systems (I ran into it using integrated graphics on my ROG ALLY, but I've never had an issue with it when using a proper video card). 

I see don't think it's that I've been using it for like 2 years without no issues. Both the blur. Only other thing I can think of is I changed the main screen HDMI cable to display port to HDMI to make that the main screen when it starts up. Maybe the plugin is confused? I'll try to delete the screen setup and readd screen marquees again and set it up all over with a clean install of your plugin. Thank you for your reply. 

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HI, I HAVE A VPIN Im using for mame. how can i have horizontal games run on the backglass, with marque on playfield  at the top, and vertical games the reverse?

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1 hour ago, rolandtk said:

HI, I HAVE A VPIN Im using for mame. how can i have horizontal games run on the backglass, with marque on playfield  at the top, and vertical games the reverse?

Hi. For launching the games on different screens you'll need to handle that through MAME by passing in different -screen values for vertical and horizontal games.
 

For the marquees I'm not sure that's possible without some custom theming. If it were me I'd go the easier/better route and just add another topper screen on top of the backglass. Like this one:

IMG_2633.thumb.jpeg.296b6e7abea10bc22e6e7c120a112b02.jpeg
 

Then you'd have two marquees when playing vertical games and a single marquee when playing horizontal games (the game would cover up the backglass marquee).

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