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Playtime 1.6

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DazStelfox79
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About This File

Happy New Year Everyone!


Playtime is a modern theme that looks good on the Big Screen & showcases some nostalgia with Retro games consoles, computers & arcade machines! 
Playtime is a Hybrid theme meaning some views were created with the Community Theme Creator & other views like the Game Discovery Center view & PlatformHybrid Views were only possible through coding XAML. 
Playtime showcases the new Game Discovery Center view & PlatformHybrid views which give it such a modern feel, Think of Playtime like a Netflix For Games kind of look where you can browse & discover content you may have forgotten about or just not played in a while. 
Playtime has had a makeover since the last upload with some smooth transitions switching between games & screens with Fullscreen Fanart & gameplay videos. 
In the GDC/Game Discovery Center view or I like to call the Home Screen I have took some much appreciated feedback from faeran & utilised some navigational context when switching games as to which game you are navigating to/from. For example the screen transitions from The Highly Recommended Games in a frame at the top of screen into a list of games with Fullscreen Fanart & details.
This theme contains a Game Discovery Center View, 3 PlatformHybrid views, 4 Platform Views, 2 Text list with details Views, 3 Horizontal based Views of Game Boxes, 2 Wall Views & a Vertical View/WheelGamesView for all your retro games based in a bedroom on a desk with a device hooked up to a screen or an arcade machine in a Arcade room to showcase some Nostalgia.

Game Discovery Center View

To set Game Discovery Center to startup as your Home view. Start Big Box & go to Options/Views/Default Startup View: Game Discovery Center

Platform Hybrid Views

To set Platform Hybrid to startup as your Home view. Start Big Box & go to Options/Views/Default Startup View: Platforms

Important Note!

I have added new Fanart & Device images so you will need to refresh these images for Big Box to recognise them. Start Big Box & go to Options/Image Cache/Refresh all Images.

Note!

To change the images for the Recently Played shortcuts in the PlatformWheel3FilterViews & PlatformWheel4FiltersView press the T button on your keyboard.

Note!

To open the Index in WallGamesView & Wall2GamesView press the T button on your keyboard or bind to a desired button on your controller like the LB button.

Avatar Profile, Profile Name Customisations & Instructions

You can personalise your Home Screen ect with your own Avatar profile/Gamer Pic & i have created 50 Avatar pics for your profile for you to play around with & enjoy.
Copy & Paste the Avatar picture from the Custom Avatars/User Avatars folder to Playtime/Media/Theme folder & replace. For further instructions for text editing ect An Instructions file is included.

Important Note!
Videoborder views for the Vertical View/WheelGamesView File

Important note**If  the artwork & videoborder views do not display properly for a platform on your system, there will most likely be naming conflicts between your platforms & files in my theme. To fix this issue, you must locate these files in the videoborder folder of my Playtime theme then change the names to your actual platforms name.

GDC/Game Discovery Center Skin Pack

Also included in this theme is a Game Discovery Skin Pack with different variations of the Game Discovery Center/DiscoveryPageView file. This is located in Playtime/Media/Theme folder called GDC Skin Pack.
Just Copy/Paste & Replace in the Views folder!
 

 

Edited by DazStelfox79
Edited text details

What's New in Version 1.6   See changelog

Released

I have changed the code in all Views to use the ActiveGame properties rather than the SelectedGame properties for smoother scrolling through games as older & slower  computers would experience major lagg.                                                         ActiveGame properties delay the loading of images ect slightly when scrolling through games but do not cause lagg. SelectedGame properties on the other hand load images ect instantly when scrolling through games but causes lagg.


Added extra controller button inputs to the Game Discovery Center/DiscoveryPageView
Added 3 new PlatformHybridViews
Added a new row, extra controller button inputs, Play Time tracker & Favourites icon & border to banner images in WallGamesViews
Added a new Wall2GamesViews
Added extra controller button inputs & Favourites icon & border to box images in HorizontalWheel1View 
Added a larger gameplay Video window with 3 small gameplay screenshots to  HorizontalWheel1View 
Added a new HorizontalWheel2View & HorizontalWheel3View
Added a Play Time tracker to most of the game views
Added the new progress status features & a new achievements icon to all game  Views apart from WallGamesView, Wall2GamesView & VerticalView/WheelGamesView
Added extra controller button inputs, removed the fanart frame & added a larger background image & added Games Count to TextGamesView
Added extra controller button inputs, removed the fanart frame & added a larger background image to TextFiltersView
Removed the BoxesGamesView due to random crashes
Added over 100 new Videoborders to the VerticalView/WheelGamesView 
 

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DazStelfox79

DazStelfox79 178

Posted

Thanks SidewaysMan, Keep an eye out for future updates & possible Skins for my theme😀

  • Like 1
Shermo

Shermo 48

Posted

The game play video no longer shows in latest, you can hear it 

  • Like 1
DazStelfox79

DazStelfox79 178

Posted

Ahh thanks Shermo for letting me know. Which view does this happen in?

SidewaysMan

SidewaysMan 225

Posted

Im getting same issue as Shermo with latest. Once you enter a platform, and scroll through games, the gameplay videos arent showing, we can hear em but they dont show bud. 

Also on a sidenote we uploaded a bunch of our fanart packs and this theme looks fantastic with them! Wondering if you could make a view perhaps with fullscreen fanart background. Just an idea. Love this theme!

 

DazStelfox79

DazStelfox79 178

Posted

Hi Guys

Ive been going through all the xml files to find the problem with the videos playing without sound.

It seems that VLC Player does not like videos that are in a Dock or Stack & I have always used Windows Media Player for playback.

Could you please set your Video Player to WMP in Big Box settings/Videos & let me know how this works for you.

If I need to I will upload all the original view files if people still have problems so let me know & when everything is fine could I please have a review.

SidewaysMan

SidewaysMan 225

Posted

Yep that fixed it. Thanks, its a real great theme!!!

 

lessthanzero33

lessthanzero33 29

Posted

I love the asthetic of this theme but i am having issues when scrolling thru games. If i am in a certain system, scrolling from game to game or letter to letter has some serious lag between scrolling. Ironically enough, when i first installed the theme, everything ran/scrolled smoothly but now there's delay. Any ideas?

 

DazStelfox79

DazStelfox79 178

Posted

Not sure if it is to do with the game play videos being in a dock or stack.

Also all the views were designed off Selected Item View where the images load instantly scrolling through games.

I have another version that was designed off Active Item View where there is a slight delay loading images scrolling through games which should prevent lag hopefully, I will upload this version when I am next at my pc to see  if this resolves the lag

  • Like 1
lessthanzero33

lessthanzero33 29

Posted

4 hours ago, DazStelfox79 said:

Not sure if it is to do with the game play videos being in a dock or stack.

Also all the views were designed off Selected Item View where the images load instantly scrolling through games.

I have another version that was designed off Active Item View where there is a slight delay loading images scrolling through games which should prevent lag hopefully, I will upload this version when I am next at my pc to see  if this resolves the lag

The new version is much better but i am experiencing a lot of delay/lag in the Horizontal Wheel 1 view.

DazStelfox79

DazStelfox79 178

Posted

On 8/1/2024 at 5:47 AM, SidewaysMan said:

Im getting same issue as Shermo with latest. Once you enter a platform, and scroll through games, the gameplay videos arent showing, we can hear em but they dont show bud. 

Also on a sidenote we uploaded a bunch of our fanart packs and this theme looks fantastic with them! Wondering if you could make a view perhaps with fullscreen fanart background. Just an idea. Love this theme!

 

For You SidewaysMan I am currently working on a Skin for Fullscreen Fanart Backgrounds, Stay Tuned

SidewaysMan

SidewaysMan 225

Posted

22 minutes ago, DazStelfox79 said:

For You SidewaysMan I am currently working on a Skin for Fullscreen Fanart Backgrounds, Stay Tuned

Look forward to seeing it buddy!!! You're a talented fella!

SidewaysMan

SidewaysMan 225

Posted

Nice update, I like the new views alot!!! One question I have is it possible to get rid of the black bar on top in vertical wheel 2 view etc. 

 

DazStelfox79

DazStelfox79 178

Posted

I take it you mean the Horizontal wheel views!

sure I mean, you can open any of these views with notepad & there is a section that’s says Top Bar, this can just be deleted. Hope this helps.

SidewaysMan

SidewaysMan 225

Posted

Excellent thanks!!!! Great job as always!!!

 

nadafinga

nadafinga 0

Posted

Great looking theme! It's now my default.

One suggestion, for the Horizontal view with video in a window in the upper right, you should make the video window larger (or make a 3rd layout option.)

In current layout the video and image are showing similar things, and the video is really tiny compared to the rest of the layout.

Instead, you should double the size of the video window, and have it show video > gameplay screenshot > Fan Art. Attaching an edited image to illustrate what I'm describing.

Again, Great job, I know beggars can't be choosers! Just throwing this out there. 

horiz-view3.png

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