
skizzosjt
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skizzosjt last won the day on May 14 2023
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Most common way is likely using the custom launch parameters. Edit the game and go to the launching > emulation section and toggle on using custom command line. you enter can enter the command for the preferred different core in it. Another way would be to setup another emulator instance in your emulator list for Retroarch but this time select a different core in the associated platforms list. then you assign this different instance of Retroarch as the emulator for that game. You can also add more cores for a platform on a single instance of Retroarch in the associated platform list, but it wouldn't choose that one each time by hitting the play button like normal. It would require right click play with to select the intended different core or using the game details screen then play with if within Big Box. A few choices to suit different use cases
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not really a feature but it is possible. you can manually open the appropriate xml file and change the value. you can enter that you played a game for 5000 hours that you never played if you really wanted to.
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hi @y2guru! I am either reporting some bugs, or asking for some help if they are not bugs. I've noticed a few issues in recent months (sorry I am taking so long to report anything). I am on latest 3.3.2 and notice that images used in platform wheels and game wheels do not maintain their aspect ratio if said aspect ratio is very large. As in much wider than they are taller. Take the Nintendo GameBoy Advance logo, and Sony Playstation 3 logo as examples. Both of these are squished in height, being shorter than they should. That is an assumption on my end, they could in fact be stretched to be wider instead but either way it creates the same distorted aspect ratio. I notice the same with some game clear logos too like Shadow of the Tomb Raider which also has the same sort of aspect ratio of being much wider than taller. I assumed I had either distorted images or a funky setting used in CTC but neither is the case. The images look fine when viewed outside of CTC, and if I use the images as an image element inside CTC, they look fine. Only within the wheels do they look wrong. Something seems to not be treating aspect ratio properly when above/below a certain threshold. Here is an example of the Nintendo GameBoy Advance logo. As you can see from comparing them, the one in the wheel looks squished in height compared to the same image directly above it. I have also the exact same image as an image element directly above it and sizing it to be the exact same width. All other clear logos visible in the wheel look OK, so it's not a problem that impacts all images. With the evidence in front of me it seems this only impacts really wide aspect ratio images. Note this is the first time I thought to test this on a horizontal wheel too and the problem persists. I use a vertical wheel instead and I just want to clarify that regardless of using a horizontal or vertical wheel, this issue is present. The second issue I have noticed is the game wheel index is all funny looking only once published. The wheel index looks perfect in CTC, but once published it is not using proper sizes or scaling for something. The letters and magnifying glass for search for example look larger and/or off centered. I noticed this code has changed compared to old versions and I have figured out how to manipulate some margins in the XML file after publishing to make things visible, but my point here is there is something wrong on CTC's end with making it wrong from the get go. Here is an example showing the clear logo looking like it is squished on the game wheel also. I have the exact same image as an image element right next to it for comparison and it looks correct. Just showing this issue is present on all wheels, not just a platform wheel. Also showing that the wheel index looks totally fine within CTC's editor. However, once I publish this theme, it looks funny in Big Box. It still functions as in selecting the letter does move the wheel accordingly, but parts of text/icons are hidden or covered up Here is this test theme published in Big Box. The wheel index has all the individual selections like the letters and search and filter, etc, look too big or their viewing area is too small. Portions of them are all cut off and off centered If I edit the game wheel index how I actual want it to look like, this problem gets worse. Here it is in CTC. All I did besides change a color is make these corners rounded with a value of 20 in each field. I stuck in a rectangle behind the wheel index so you can actually see I did the round corners (hard to see black on black lol) Now here it is published in Big Box. Now I move the position around and change the font, and it looks noticeably worse. Here it is in CTC still looking OK within the editor But soon as I publish, it looks all sorts of wrong in Big Box. It looks like the actual characters are all too large and are creating "..." in place of not being able to fit the character Here is what I actually use which is a customized version of Colorful. The game wheel index looks fine as I want it to within CTC. Go to publish, and it's all sorts of funny looking in Big Box Here in Big Box. It looks like the actual characters are all too large and are creating "..." in place of not being able to fit the character I can see both of these above issues even when starting a brand new theme in CTC v3.3.2 so it is not anything related to some funky setting I have in an otherwise fully built up custom theme. I'm talking brand new from scratch theme with nothing but a wheel and index element in it and these problems still exist. I do not use any scaling. My resolution is 4K (3840 x 2160) and 100% scaling/DPI. I've found that messing around with these values were the quickest way for me to fix the issue in the meantime. This is a screen shot of the XML file once published. The highlighted line regarding margins I change to this instead.... Margin="-40,-10,-45,0"> However, seems to be another issue on top of this. Why doesn't all aspects of the game wheel index scale properly with different resolutions and DPI/scaling options? I do test my theme against other resolutions and scaling and the game wheel index selections like the letters/characters and the magnifying glass etc, they all get smaller as I increase DPI/scaling. So for ex, 300% scaling makes it so all these letters and images are visible, but they are much smaller than I want. This really shouldn't be happening, changing scale/DPI should not impact the visual size of this stuff, it should look the same exact size regardless of scaling/DPI used. I notice the round corners change appearance (larger or smaller radius) when I change resolution and/or scaling/DPI When I change resolution this also makes a difference. I am building everything, and use everything, at 4K and 100% scaling. However, if I change my desktop resolution to 1920 x 1080 and continue to use 100% scaling and then launch Big Box.....now the game wheel index looks like it does in CTC. This behavior makes me think something is wrong regarding the game wheel index and its scaling per the users resolution and/or DPI/scaling. Can you please advise if these are in fact bugs and if so would they get added to a fix it list for a future CTC version? If they are not bugs, could you lend me a hand on what setting(s) I can change to resolve this stuff? Sorry for the very long post. Only trying to be detailed to either help resolve a bug or get some help fixing whatever mistake I am making!
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AutoHotKey Script: Trying to close EA app upon game exit in Launchbox
skizzosjt replied to Bucky's topic in Troubleshooting
I don't really use EA often at all. I have two games on it, which are actually Steam games but it still launches the EA launcher too (boy that is a pet peeve of mine - only one launcher, please lol) Last game I would have played a few times was Star Wars Jedi Knight (over a year ago) and I don't ever recall the EA launcher popping back up after exiting the game. I had to update the launcher to test this and it def does pop back up every time I exit a game now. So seems like new behavior for their latest app version. yea def can launch these games directly, but same here, the launcher window is restored at game exit each time. @Bucky can you also try using AHK to close the EA launcher? create another script with just a single line to close this window. put it on your desktop and double click it to run it from there. if this doesn't close the window then we know something def going on on your end preventing it from working WinClose, ahk_exe EADesktop.exe that pop up about needing admin privileges is suspicious but from what I can tell it's doing that to the game, not the launcher. AHK cannot close apps/windows that have admin privileges unless the script is also launched with admin privileges. but we're only using AHK to close the launcher rather than the game. if still not working, as a last ditch effort you can try making the script run with admin privileges but this opens another can of worms because you would need to always click yes on the UAC prompt to allow the script to use admin privileges so not exactly fully automated Here is the instructions from AHK docs. you just add this at start of a script https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/v1/lib/Run.htm#RunAs full_command_line := DllCall("GetCommandLine", "str") if not (A_IsAdmin or RegExMatch(full_command_line, " /restart(?!\S)")) { try { if A_IsCompiled Run *RunAs "%A_ScriptFullPath%" /restart else Run *RunAs "%A_AhkPath%" /restart "%A_ScriptFullPath%" } ExitApp } WinClose, ahk_exe EADesktop.exe -
BigBox platform videos glitch out on 4K TV
skizzosjt replied to ThailandLover8's topic in Troubleshooting
with both displays hooked up try and play the videos from Windows Explorer but make sure the videos are opening up on the 4K TV (rather than the 1080p one). takes Big Box out of the equation. do they "glitch" when played? if so then have just the 4K TV hooked up and try and play the videos from Window Explorer, still a problem? if so, that TV, its settings, or cable is the culprit. -
How to keep the start-up screen on untill a game launches
skizzosjt replied to Kefka2b's topic in Troubleshooting
Dolphin shouldn't flash any other window at boot of a game. maybe missing some launch param. are you using "-b" for batch? that would launch the game without the actual Dolphin interface window with your list of games and such. it would only launch the actual game window with that param -
AutoHotKey Script: Trying to close EA app upon game exit in Launchbox
skizzosjt replied to Bucky's topic in Troubleshooting
sorry that one is on me. clearly did NOT double check my work 🤦♂️ I left a line out and flip flopped the intended command. I did the following: Run the storefront launcher, wait for launcher to exist, run the game, wait for game to exist, wait for the launcher to close....lol makes no sense here is what I intended to do: Run the storefront launcher, wait for launcher to exist, run the game, wait for game to exist, wait for game to not exist, close the launcher. Run, "C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\EA Desktop\EA Desktop\EADesktop.exe" WinWait, ahk_exe EADesktop.exe Run, "C:\Program Files\EA Games\Mass Effect\Binaries\MassEffect.exe" WinWait, ahk_exe MassEffect.exe WinWaitClose, ahk_exe MassEffect.exe WinClose, ahk_exe EADesktop.exe ExitApp Back at my main PC now and I do have the EA launcher on there. I tested out both of these commands, WinClose and Process, Close, they both work closing EADesktop.exe. So with that said, best to use the WinClose option since it's proven to work and the standard graceful way of closing a window or app -
AutoHotKey Script: Trying to close EA app upon game exit in Launchbox
skizzosjt replied to Bucky's topic in Troubleshooting
Run, "C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\EA Desktop\EA Desktop\EADesktop.exe" WinWait, ahk_exe EADesktop.exe Run, "C:\Program Files\EA Games\Mass Effect\Binaries\MassEffect.exe" WinWait, ahk_exe MassEffect.exe WinWaitClose, ahk_exe EADesktop.exe ExitApp this is how I would do it. give this a shot and let us know how it goes! tip on why those didn't work for ya. I would assume the script is closing the game within nanoseconds after opening it Run, "C:\Program Files\EA Games\Mass Effect\Binaries\MassEffect.exe" WinClose, MassEffect.exe that runs the game, and the very next line is closing it. (edit: actually it would not close it cause I just noticed it's missing the ahk_exe part) when you use WinClose to refer to a process you need to use proper AHK criteria syntax. since it's a process it's "ahk_exe". you'll notice my suggestion uses these if you really want to learn some stuff thumb around in the AHK docs page. it helped me a lot. you can find stuff through their content or index tree or search keywords. https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/v1/ https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/v1/lib/WinClose.htm https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/v1/misc/WinTitle.htm -
AutoHotKey Script: Trying to close EA app upon game exit in Launchbox
skizzosjt replied to Bucky's topic in Troubleshooting
my bet is EADesktop.exe has a buttload of child processes and it isn't closing the main parent one. you should not be using Process, Close unless the standard WinClose command isn't getting the job done. going off JoeViking245's point that Process, Close is a forceful method. it's the same as pressing ALT+F4 or pulling the plug right out of the socket lol using WinClose will close the window, closing all relevant matching processes. Process, Close is only going to close the FIRST process it finds that matches whatever criteria it is looking for. -
check the release notes for 13.22 or the beta thread. they changed a few fields which would impact that unplayed badge. I use it too and anyone who used it is in the same boat, it's not going to work as is going forward, there are new ones to use that have expanded on the feature. some things did not translate/update well either. if you were using the complete checkbox for any entries you might need that plugin c-beats made to change old values into the new expected value.
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1) need to use update on selection rather than update after selection for the element(s) in question. depending on your subjective opinion and system capability this can be a bad idea because as you scroll through the platform it's going to try and load all that stuff instantly and can impact performance. imagine trying to open/close for example 124 videos in under 15 secs because if you scroll through that many games in that much time, that's what's going on in the back end. if your system cannot handle all that activity it's going to bog down during that. badges would be fine using update on selection even on a potato system. 2) no not natively. if you could use AHK to check what devices are connected and place a transparent image always on top if certain one(s) exist, and remove the image when it's disconnected, that works in theory. no idea how to do that at a detailed level, but I've seen it done (AHK getting devices connected). googling shows AHK community has covered this topic well and I already see the finish line, this is possible. For your reading: https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=108930 3) those are views rather than elements. you can edit them the same way you edit any other view. if the theme was made in CTC then you load the theme up in CTC and edit those views. if it wasn't made in CTC then you either need to create those views in CTC or edit it traditionally via its raw code. 4) I don't use this view so not sure of what is or is not possible.
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Additional Apps - Shader Glass - Not Working As Expected
skizzosjt replied to ghettowario's topic in Troubleshooting
I recommend to be creating a profile in shaderglass. The github and manual included (same as all notes on the github) give excellent documentation on how to use and troubleshoot. No surprise chatgpt sucks and spits out a non working script. A script should be formatted something like this. launch shaderglass fullscreen and load a specific profile, wait for the game/emulator, wait for it to close, close shaderglass. Run, D:\Utilities\ShaderGlass\shaderglass.exe -f D:\Utilities\ShaderGlass\Profiles\RA_MB_TV2_16-9.sgp WinWait, ahk_exe xemu.exe WinWaitClose, ahk_exe xemu.exe WinClose, ahk_exe shaderglass.exe -
yes WinHide, ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd to show it WinShow, ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd to have it hide at boot setup task scheduler to run the script at boot. for what it is worth, I do not know why, but every single time I exit Big Box when the task bar is hidden it magically reappears as if the WinShow line ran and it is def not because of any script. I can only assume Big Box is doing that also fair warning, I also have a hotkey setup to hide and show the task bar. otherwise it can be a pain when you find yourself with no way to get it to show again without logging out or restarting. you can push the Windows key to make parts of it show but it goes away again. point being, I would recommend having said script have a hotkey for those actions too. also best way in my opinion to launch Steam silently is to use the native option with Steam's settings to launch Steam at boot of OS. it is auto minimized (hidden) to the tray. this way when you launch games the client window continues to stay hidden and you never see that advertisement window either.
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This can be handled with AHK. Shutdown if idle more than X. For ex, this uses 5 mins, adjust to your liking. Slip it into LaunchBox Startup Apps and set it to run only when Big Box launches Loop { If (A_TimeIdle >= 300000) Shutdown, 8 Process, Exist, BigBox.exe If (ErrorLevel = 0) ExitApp } FYI this was tested with attract mode running. Artificial inputs from Big Box have no impact on the built in AHK var A_TimeIdle and script works as intended Edit.....I re-read your comment and seems vague now lol. Did you mean to shutdown the PC or "shutdown" (close) Big Box and PC stays on?
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importing through a wizard automatically changes the platform's "game" path to that directory.......it's a beyond annoying feature!