[How to show a category in the main Big Box list?]

Thanks for getting back to me RetroCove. I just wanted *that* category showing though.

In other words, I want my Startup View to be a list of Platforms but with also the Pinball Category... so the wheel would be something like....

Arcade

Atari 2600

etc

Pinball -->

-------------> Future Pinball

-------------> Visual Pinball

 

I know that you can set a Playlist to show in the wheel, I just wondered if you could do it with a Category?

Thanks for your help 🙂

[How to show a category in the main Big Box list?]

Hi all,

I have got a few pinball platforms (FX3, Visual Pinball, Future Pinball) and (ideally) I would like one Category of "Pinball" and you can see on the main wheel and then you click into that and have the various platforms within there.

The reason being, if people are playing on my cab, they may want to have a game of pinball but can't find the games (i.e. don't know to search for "Future Pinball"). Also, it would keep things neater.

I've added a "Category" of Pinball. And I've edited the pinball Platforms to have the Category of "Pinball" as their parent.

Not sure where to go from here though? Is it possible? What else do I need to do?

Many thanks 🙂

[Transferring a license?]

1 hour ago, Retro808 said:

You can email support@unbrokensfotware.com. Explain the situation and see if they can get you sorted. 

Thanks Retro. I'll drop them a line. I've just emailed my mate to get his home email addy off him so I'll send that along as well and see if they can generate him the license. Thanks again

[Transferring a license?]

Hi there,

I'm selling my old arcade cab (running Hyperspin) to a mate of mine. When the Black Friday sale was on I thought it would be nice to buy an annual license for LaunchBox and get that set up for him.

I bought the license (I already own a lifetime license for LB on my main arcade) and reformatted my old arcade to Win 10, installed LB and I've just come to transfer the License.xml and it looks like it has my Name/Email encoded into it?

Is there a way to transfer this license over to him? I've never installed the license (i.e. it's never "been online"). I've literally just downloaded it from my purchase email right now.

Many thanks

John

[Unique setup.. looking for ideas]

On 11/5/2021 at 11:58 AM, recordguy42 said:

I have (maybe) a bit of a unique setup and looking for ideas. I am using bigbox on one tv to search through game catalogs, see artwork and manuals but playing games on original hardware on different tv. My issue is that I don't really want to even see the "play" options for games in bigbox. Right now, I have it so it can't find file and a windows box comes up to say file can't be found. Any way to remove play option in code? If not, is there a way to launch manual when click play or anyone have another idea?

Big Box just launches whatever 'exe' it points to. If I'm understanding you correctly, you could just point Big Box to some batch file that opens the manual? Not sure of the intricacies of this though... would need all your manuals naming the same as the game I think. 

Other than that, it sounds like Big Box might not be your best option for what you're trying to achieve? It could be a case of using BB to get all the media/manuals etc and then rolling your own front end to display them? Maybe via an offline website arrangement through the browser?

["High Score" - TV series on the evolution of gaming]

Started watching a programme on Netflix called "High Score" last night. It charts the evolution of the gaming industry and the inspiration behind some of the (now) classic games - Pac Man, Space Invaders etc.

Also some of the politics and shenanigans that went on behind the scenes.

I've only watched the first episode but I really enjoyed it and thought it might appeal to others on here.

🙂

[How to change dimensions of marquee image/video?]

33 minutes ago, Greedy Guido said:

Just used this code on my 36.6" 1920x290 Stretch LCD Display making sure I use my resolution (Height="290" Width="1920") in lieu of the 265x1366 and worked first go.

 

Thanks Johnny T.

 

No problem @Greedy Guido glad it worked for you and thanks for the thanks!!

Your build looks awesome!!

[Can't get Big Box to launch on 3rd monitor screen]

10 minutes ago, faeran said:

Thanks @Johnny T. At least I can say that on my main computer, I do use 3 screens, and they can cycle between them without issue.

Long shot, but maybe play around with the positioning of the screens in Windows and see if that makes any difference.

You can also unplug one of your other monitors temporarily just to test if Big Box is able to display anything on that screen.

Yep, that worked!! I changed screen 3 to be at the other side and it works now?

Strangely, if Screen 3 is in the centre or at the left hand side then it doesn't work??

Many thanks for the great suggestion matey

[Can't get Big Box to launch on 3rd monitor screen]

Yep, good idea! I'll give that a go and report back

 

[Can't get Big Box to launch on 3rd monitor screen]

15 minutes ago, faeran said:

Just curious, when you are cycling through the Big Box screen options, does it never land on the portrait monitor?

Hi Faeran, thanks for chipping in (great video's on YT by the way...). Good suggestion, I just tried it... Screen 1 goes to Screen 1, Screen 2 goes to Screen 2, Screen 3 goes back to Screen 1 again  

I wonder if it's a limitation because i've got three screens? Maybe I need to make my vertical monitor either Screen 1 or 2 ?

[Can't get Big Box to launch on 3rd monitor screen]

I've got three monitors. Two of them are just 1920x1080 but Monitor 3 is 1080x1920 (portrait).

I've "identified" the 3 monitors and the vertical one is number 3.

However, when I set Big Box to use Screen 3 as it's primary monitor (marquee monitor is set to 'none') then it just launches on Screen 2 instead?

Anyone any ideas? 

I can probably buy a lead and mess around setting my vertical monitor to Screen 2 but thought I'd ask on here before I went to that trouble in case there was an easy fix?

 

[Pulse Theme]

1 hour ago, Rockovissi said:

Thanks. Is that what it’s doing though, looking for emumovies? I’ll just download the metadata but I didn’t know what it was looking for.

As I said, I'm not 100% sure. I'm just very new to the Theme Creator. Just watched a few videos on it and still trying to get my head around it. It *looked* like that to me but I might be wrong. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along to give you a definite answer

[Pulse Theme]

8 hours ago, Rockovissi said:

Is there a way to disable that so it’s not looking for the videos? If so, is that in the Theme Specific settings or Big Box itself? Thanks!

I'm not sure if you could use another 'game view' or not - which would be selectable through Big Box.

Otherwise I think you'd be basically changing the theme itself through the Theme Creator. 

 

[Pulse Theme]

27 minutes ago, Rockovissi said:

Hello all, wondering if you can answer a question for me regarding the Pulse theme. I have games set to Text List with Details, I do have the boxart showing up now but there's a blank square to the left of the boxart. What metadata is that looking for? And can I disable it so the box isn't showing? Is it a screenshot, emumovies? Thanks to anyone!

I'm very (VERY) new to Theme Creator but, if it's the box I *think* you're referring to, then it looks like a box with the background set to a "scanlines.png" and it's supposed to have the video snap running on it.

But, I'm sure someone a lot more knowledgeable will pop on and confirm that or correct me. 🙂

[How to change dimensions of marquee image/video?]

For anyone who finds this thread in the future I thought I'd post back with the solution to setting up the image/video marquee on a theme. As Retro kindly pointed out in the earlier post, I just had to use the GameMarqueeView.xaml and PlatformMarqueeView.xaml and drop them into the Views folder within the Theme in question (even though they didn't originally exist in there (so I used the base files from the Big Box Default theme) - once they are dropped in then the theme honours whatever settings are in there).

After much Googling and reading about xaml files and a BIG bit of help from Faeran, my GameMarqueeView.xaml ended up looking like this....

<UserControl xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
    xmlns:coverFlow="clr-namespace:Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Controls.CoverFlow;assembly=Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows"
    mc:Ignorable="d"
    d:DesignHeight="562"
    d:DesignWidth="1000"
    HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
    VerticalAlignment="Top"
    FocusVisualStyle="{x:Null}"
    BorderThickness="0"
    Margin="0"
    Padding="0"
    Background="#000">
    <Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Height="265" Width="1366">
        <coverFlow:FlowImage CreateFallbackImage="False" DataContext="{Binding SelectedGame}" ImageType="Boxes" Stretch="Uniform" StretchDirection="Both" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality">
            <coverFlow:FlowImage.Style>
                <Style TargetType="{x:Type coverFlow:FlowImage}">
                    <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Hidden"/>
                    <Style.Triggers>
                        <MultiDataTrigger>
                            <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
                                <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=MarqueeImage, Path=HasImage}" Value="False" />
                                <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=LogoImage, Path=HasImage}" Value="False" />
                                <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=MarqueeVideo, Path=HasVideo}" Value="False" />
                            </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
                            <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Visible"/>
                        </MultiDataTrigger>
                    </Style.Triggers>
                </Style>
            </coverFlow:FlowImage.Style>
        </coverFlow:FlowImage>
        <Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch">
            <Grid.Style>
                <Style TargetType="{x:Type Grid}">
                    <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Hidden"/>
                    <Style.Triggers>
                        <MultiDataTrigger>
                            <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
                                <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=MarqueeImage, Path=HasImage}" Value="False" />
                                <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=LogoImage, Path=HasImage}" Value="True" />
                                <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=MarqueeVideo, Path=HasVideo}" Value="False" />
                            </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
                            <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Visible"/>
                        </MultiDataTrigger>
                    </Style.Triggers>
                </Style>
            </Grid.Style>
            <Image Source="{Binding SelectedGame.BackgroundImagePath}" Stretch="UniformToFill" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality">
                <Image.Effect>
                    <BlurEffect Radius="20"/>
                </Image.Effect>
            </Image>
            <Grid>
                <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                    <ColumnDefinition Width="1*"/>
                    <ColumnDefinition Width="6*"/>
                    <ColumnDefinition Width="1*"/>
                </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                <Grid.RowDefinitions>
                    <RowDefinition Height="1*"/>
                    <RowDefinition Height="6*"/>
                    <RowDefinition Height="1*"/>
                </Grid.RowDefinitions>
                <coverFlow:FlowImage x:Name="LogoImage" Visibility="Collapsed" CreateFallbackImage="False" DataContext="{Binding SelectedGame}" ImageType="Clear Logo" Stretch="Uniform" StretchDirection="Both" 
                                     HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" />
                <Image Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" Source="{Binding SelectedGame.ClearLogoImagePath}" Stretch="Uniform" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" />
            </Grid>
        </Grid>
        <coverFlow:FlowImage x:Name="MarqueeImage" CreateFallbackImage="False" DataContext="{Binding SelectedGame}" ImageType="Marquees" Stretch="Fill" StretchDirection="Both" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality">
            <coverFlow:FlowImage.Style>
                <Style TargetType="{x:Type coverFlow:FlowImage}">
                    <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Hidden"/>
                    <Style.Triggers>
                        <MultiDataTrigger>
                            <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
                                <Condition Binding="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}, Path=HasImage}" Value="True" />
                                <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=MarqueeVideo, Path=HasVideo}" Value="False" />
                            </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions>
                            <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Visible"/>
                        </MultiDataTrigger>
                    </Style.Triggers>
                </Style>
            </coverFlow:FlowImage.Style>
        </coverFlow:FlowImage>
        <coverFlow:FlowVideo x:Name="MarqueeVideo" VideoType="Marquee" DataContext="{Binding SelectedGame}" PlayVideo="True" PlayAudio="False" FallbackToDefault="False" StretchVideo="True">
            <coverFlow:FlowVideo.Style>
                <Style TargetType="{x:Type coverFlow:FlowVideo}">
                    <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Visible"/>
                    <Style.Triggers>
                        <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}, Path=HasVideo}" Value="False">
                            <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Hidden"/>
                        </DataTrigger>
                    </Style.Triggers>
                </Style>
            </coverFlow:FlowVideo.Style>
        </coverFlow:FlowVideo>
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

The key parts are the Height and Width in the Grid tag - which align with my particular Marquee display. And also the VerticalAlignment="Top" near the top of the file which moves the marquee image up to the top of the screen. And, finally, the StretchVideo="True" (which Faeran kindly told me about) which stretches the marquee videos across the marquee screen.

 

Once I'd sorted that then I also altered the PlatformMarqueeView.xaml as well. It became this.....

 

<UserControl xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
    mc:Ignorable="d"
    d:DesignHeight="562"
    d:DesignWidth="1000"
    HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
    VerticalAlignment="Top"
    FocusVisualStyle="{x:Null}"
    BorderThickness="0"
    Margin="0"
    Padding="0"
    Background="#000">
	<Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Height="265" Width="1366">
        <Image Source="{Binding Path=SelectedPlatform.BannerImagePath}" Stretch="Fill" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" />
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

 

These files may not be "perfect" in the programming sense as it was a lot of trial and error so, if anyone is reading this who has more knowledge, feel free to chime in and point out any mistakes. However, they seem to work for my setup with a stretched LCD so thought they might help someone else in the future.

Thanks to Retro808 and Faeran as we are all just standing on the shoulders of giants like that to get anywhere with this stuff (I know I am anyway!!!).

🙂

[Hiscores not recording... can someone confirm I need mame64 for this?]

That's great Neil. Thanks for letting me know.

I'll just have to hope that the Gods shine on me again during my next Fighting Hawk session after the fix.... get myself up to my rightful place near the top of the table..... 🙂

[Hiscores not recording... can someone confirm I need mame64 for this?]

2 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

This may well be the problem. I'm on 0.236 still so it works fine here.

Yep, that must be it!!

Well spotted Neil 🙂

I just went in to my MAME emulator folder and saw a new "hiscore" folder...

 

And sure enough... within there is my Fighting Hawk high score from the weekend.....

So, Big Box must still be looking in the "hi" folder I'm guessing?

Is this something I can fix at the MAME end in the config or is it just a case of wait for a fix from the Big Box end?

Thanks for your great help 🙂

[Hiscores not recording... can someone confirm I need mame64 for this?]

6 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

You need the official MAME from the mamedev website, no forks are supported. MAME now only supports 64bit systems, hence the 64 being dropped from the .exe, its always 64bit now, so no need to distinguish between 32bit and 64bit. The mame.exe from the current MAME's works just fine still.

 

Hi Neil

Thanks for the info. I am using the official mame from the mamedev website. I tend to update most months so I'm using the 0.237 version. 

I've got my LB "connected" to the cloud.

And I've got Mame integration chosen in my options.

Anything else I'm missing??

It used to work (my old 126,000 score is still there for Fighting Hawk) but has stopped working recently.

Thanks 🙂

[Hiscores not recording... can someone confirm I need mame64 for this?]

Hi all,

After a blistering effort on Fighting Hawk (Mame) at the weekend (148,000) I noticed that my high score hadn't recorded on the Weekly / Monthly / Global high score table.

I've just been Googling it to try and find the issue and someone posted on Reddit that you needed to be using mame64.exe for high scores to work?

I'm only using mame.exe as I found that when I download the latest version of mame there isn't a "mame64.exe" that comes with it??

The last update I have to mame64.exe was 26th Jan 2021. 

Is this correct? Or am I missing something here? Is there a way of downloading the latest mame64.exe? Or am I just supposed to rename mame to mame64 to get the high scores to work in Big Box? Or am I completely on the wrong tracks here??

Any help greatly appreciated... it won't get my Fighting Hawk high score back but it will help for next time 🙂

[Feature Request: Hiscore Friend support or profile focus]

On 10/30/2021 at 4:28 PM, Mock said:

I love that launchbox supports hiscore. And did a project myself for many years ago to update a website with score to compete with friends at work.

one thing i miss, is when a game has many entries on a hi score, it would be great that launchbox could focus your name for which ranking you have instead of the need of scrolling to find you name on an all time score. also it would be great so add users to follow to have some sort of custom score list for those you compete against.

one last part is that a wizard for setting up hiscore could help more to join. something that could verify if the mame i correct and if its able to find the hi folder. just some basic to help beginners. 

This is a great idea though! An extra 'tab' on the High Score board for "Friends" that just shows you and the usernames that you add in to LB (basically it would just filter the boards for your chosen usernames i.e. friends). That would be a very basic 'quick fix' implementation.

Alternatively, if you wanted to go the full monty then it would be a "friend request" system with people accepting your friend request and having a management list of 'friends' etc.... I think even the first implementation would be a great addition.

@Mock if you do request it as a feature please post the link in here and then I can vote on it please. 🙂

[How to change dimensions of marquee image/video?]

35 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

You would have to modify a marquee view from another theme and place those files in the Pulse theme's \Views folder or create the marquee view for that theme. There is not setting to adjust the image/video size it is all up to how the view is coded.

What are you trying to accomplish exactly? An image of the look you want would be helpful.

Thanks for that Retro... I didn't realise I could just drop in other Theme's "views" and they would be honoured by the host theme.

That's great info. 

In answer to your question, I've got a cabinet that has a stretched LCD as a marquee... It's a strange ratio and 'standard' marquee's are only half on the screen (the bottom half is clipped).

I really want to get some videos on the marquee if possible (since the update in v12) but I also really love the Pulse theme so would like to keep that if I can.

Here's an older photo of the cab but you get the idea...

I'll try and drop in the "views" I edited in the last theme and see if that works.

Thanks again for all your help matey.

🙂

[How to change dimensions of marquee image/video?]

Hi all,

I was using the CriticalZone theme for ages and had managed to set up the marquee image sizes by altering the PlatformMarqueeView.xml and GameMarqueeView.xml in the Theme/Views folder.

I'm using a stretched LCD display so need them to be quite squished.

I've now transitioned to the excellent Pulse theme. And would like to use 'video' marquees. However, there isn't those PlatformMarqueeView.xml and GameMarqueeView.xml files in this theme. The creator kindly shared the BB Theme Creator original files with me so I've loaded BB Theme Creator tonight and I've been to the Game Marquee screen but it's blank with no elements on it.

So I wondered if there was a way (either through the software or via altering an xml or whatever) to adjust the height/width of the marquee video/image in a theme? I couldn't see anything for that in the Big Box menus but maybe I'm missing something? Or maybe I can just drop an xml in a certain folder and any theme will read that?

Many thanks for all your help

🙂

[Pulse Theme]

Okay, thanks for that. I'm planning on spending a bit of time to learn CTC anyway so will look through them and see if I can work it all out.

I have a Fruit Machine cab and want a vertical theme so was going to use CTC for that. Seems like an amazing piece of software.

Thanks for all your help and, of course, the superb theme. It's brilliant. 🙂

[Pulse Theme]

I installed Pulse last night. Wow! It's an awesome theme!!

My one issue is that my stretched LCD display has an unusual resolution. In the past I've overcome this by changing the GameMarqueeView.xaml and PlatformMarqueeView.xaml in the Theme/Views/ folder but I noticed that Pulse doesn't have one?

Does anyone know how I could alter the position/size of the marquees from Pulse?

Many thanks for all your help 🙂

[Video Arcade Marquee Files V.1.1]

These are awesome!! And are now supported with the advent of v12 I think.... thanks for putting them together and sharing. You sir, are a god among men! 🙂