skizzosjt

Monday at 11:34 PM

I guarantee that is related to this same thing!

25 minutes ago, spiritedusual said:

I am also getting this error but only on newer titles.

you are not the first person to notice this seems to apply to only recent titles! both myself and another user came to same conclusion here. from what we can tell, appears to be directly linked to the game's trailer video.

August 8

On 8/4/2025 at 11:29 PM, y2guru said:

Not bugs, sorry

Hmm ok then. I don't understand why these not bugs don't exist when I publish through CTC v3.1.5 or earlier version going back to 2.5.5. What could I be doing wrong if you are implying it is a user made issue ?

Using CTC v3.1.5 or older vesion
-Inside CTC v3.1.5 or older version
    -Certain clear logos in wheels have a distorted aspect ratio. Caveat here is this is purely cosmetic inside CTC. When I publish from v3.1.5 or earlier version these clear logos that show a distorted aspect ratio in CTC look fine in Big Box
    -These same images when inserted into a theme as an image element, using uniform for stretch property look correct in CTC. The distorted aspect ratio business only happens to these images in the wheel
    -Wheel index looks fine.
-Inside Big Box
    -All Clear logos in wheels and the wheel index look fine.

Using CTC v3.3.1 or newer version
-Inside CTC v3.3.1 or newer version
    -Same exact notes as above for v3.1.5 apply here for 3.3.1 also
-Inside Big Box
    -Same certain clear logos in wheels have distorted aspect ratio
    -Wheel index looks funky. Characters and the icons for search and filter are partially cut off or off center in their viewing area

Changing resolution or DPI in Windows is impacting how the wheel index looks and only the wheel index, no other theme elements are impacted when making those adjustments. Wheel index should not be impacted by either of those Windows settings.

If I publish a theme from v3.1.5 I do not see the issues in Big Box. Using exact same project files if I publish the theme from v3.3.1 the issues exist in Big Box. The issues also exist when I publish from v3.3.2

Further I had been doing all troubleshooting from my daily driver Windows 10 system. I've now done more troubleshooting on another system running Windows 11. This system has never had LB/BB or CTC on it. I had to go through all the .net downloading and first time setup. Even got a prompt to download it starting CTC the first time. So, this would eliminate the possibility of me having some legacy or unknown setting toggled that is otherwise contributing to the issues. These are fresh installs and everything I did is default settings when I test with a brand new fresh blank theme with nothing but a WheelGamesView view that has nothing but the default autopopulated Wheel and Wheel Index using nothing but default values that CTC populates for all their properties. I use a 4K display at 100% scaling at both of these systems, the Windows 10 and Windows 11 one. For the fresh LB/BB install I used latest v13.22 and only imported in Windows platform games for testing purposes, downloading just their clear logos. No customization was used, everything is defaults. Even doing first time installs on a new system, I still experience the issues.

August 4

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!

July 10

23 hours ago, Kefka2b said:

Thanks mate !

Strangely enough regarding point 1, I did set all the elements to load during selection and it works great when navigating within the CTC after applying the changes, but within BigBox I still get that extra lag before videos load unlike all the other elements which are instantaneous (the behaviour is identical in the Supergrafx platform which only has 5 games or within the platform categories section which has only 6 elements, behaviour is identical compared to a platform that has 500+ games), there's also something strange with badges where the "unplayed" badge doesn't show up in BigBox but does in the CTC, maybe it's linked to new progress features in 13.22 and CTC needs an update for it.

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.

July 9

4 hours ago, Kefka2b said:

Hey folks, I've started going into theme creation (well modification for now...) and I have a few questions:

1. Is there a way to have videos and badges (and possibly other items but these are the ones I noticed) load instantly without a small transition like clear logos or screenshots do? There's no animations set on them but still they require a couple of seconds each time the selection wheel is moved, I want to make my theme quick and snappy during navigation.

2. Is there a way to load items based on the connected controller/device? Idea to have an image set to a Sinden Light Gun Border on top of the theme when Sinden Gun is connected for navigation with the gun.

3. How do you edit the following elements? Game details screen, Pause and Start-Up themes (I am trying to modify existing themes)

4. Is there a way to remove some platforms from the Game Discovery Center? (I created some Light gun Games playlist set as platforms)

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.

January 21

16 hours ago, Taamo said:

Hello just a question before I give this a test drive, would I be able to do this on say, a single episode, and just use that as a full series? The way I have it set up, I use launchbox to launch the first episode of a show, or pick which season I want from the Additional Tabs menu, and then pick the exact episode in the video player instead. Outside of the run time being inaccurate, would it download the series info like the logo background etc and I can just use that as the whole series in one title? or would it HAVE to be named a certain episode title first before I can scrape it?

EDIT: Tried it and yeah it seems like I can't do this. Would you ever consider a version release like this that solely scrapes the images and metadata for the series, without the need for episode title and number? Maybe as just an option in the settings. I'd really love to use it that way!

Based on how you want to format your library this script is not for you. It's for individual episodes rather than whole seasons or series as a single entry.

There is a slim chance I'll do any rewrites. I suppose never say never is applicable here, but, please do not hold your breath.

January 6

16 hours ago, The Papaw said:

My Startup/Shutdown themes made in CTC 3.2.7 are not working in LB v13.18. Tried LB v13.17 as well. LB's Default one is working.

The Pause theme made in CTC is working okay, and all of them are working in BB, just not LB. Anyone else having this issue?

@y2guru any ideas?

16 hours ago, Rlad said:

They don't work in LB in 3.1.5 (which im using) but i thought they'd been fixed, has wheels showing text when there's no clear logo been fixed in the latest version?

I'm in mostly the same boat. I too cannot use my custom Startup or Shutdown, as well as Pause Screen I created in CTC in LAUNCHBOX

However, these same exact Startup, Shutdown, and Pause screens work fine in Big Box.

It took me a min to figure out what was going on. When I would launch a game within LaunchBox and my custom Startup/Shutdown theme is being used, it sat there indefinitely like I didn't click anything. The game wouldn't launch, and the Startup Screen would never pop up. I made a separate LB install piecing it back up to end up discovering it was triggered by adding a CTC made Startup/Shutdown theme.

The Pause screen is an empty black screen when I try to use the CTC made Pause screen in LB.

So, I use the default theme in LB for Startup/Shutdown and Pause screens. But like your situation they all work in BB.

I would def appreciate it if the issue was addressed so they could work in LB too.

October 3, 2024

3 hours ago, Madhead said:

@skizzosjt Right so I made a grid for the Hardware Overlay. I put the element in there, copied each animation bubble from the element into the grid, then deleted the bubbles in the element itself. The hardware image appeared smaller when I first put it into the grid but then I selected the fullscreen scaling option and it went right back into position. Lo and behold the animations now sync up as good as ever! I quickly republished the theme to see if it held up in BigBox itself and it's all good. Even when I fast scroll up or down the platforms the hardware overlay behaves properly and no longer fades out while you're navigating.

You mentioned other elements that need changing but as far as I can tell it's back to normal now. Thanks a lot for the help.

glad you sorted it out. I was just making some pics to post before I saw your response so I'm posting it anyways for reference for others

I think these are the important parts for the parent element. Apparently I used a dock rather than a grid for this one specifically.

Fullscreen enabled

Alignment properties are centered

Update when is ONCE SELECTED

I

The parent element needs the animation properties that were once applied to the hardware overlay element (not going into specific values since nothing should be changed there)

The hardware overlay element needs those animation properties removed once they were copied over to the new parent element. And the one other critical setting is update DURING SELECTION

There is more that needs to be adjusted if you wanted it just like it was intended to be. For ex, the animations for the color conditioned rectangle that has some metadata around it. This one might only look messed up in certain conditions, like from switching from some other theme to Colorful, or switching from one view to another within Colorful. I think this discrepancy wouldn't be noticed in "normal" conditions, ie booting into Big Box with Colorful as the theme and you are booting into your intended view and not using the assignable hotkeys to change views etc. What you would find here is colors changing later than intended, ie, you see the color change rather than have the screenmask wipe away and the colors are already changed appropriately. And/or the animations for the color conditioned rectangle shapes happen at a different time (would be harder to notice since it's just a single object moving, unlike the hardware overlay which was meant to be aligned exactly with the main video and makes it super obvious when it's off). To fix this it's more of the same idea as above. Had to leave color conditions as update DURING SELECTION for colors to change at same quick pace, but needed to create a parent element to make the animations happen at the intended later time using update ONCE SELECTED

This only fixed PlatformWheel1FiltersView. You would need to do same ideas to fix up PlatformWheel2FiltersView as well if you wanted that wheel looking as intended too

I noticed you mentioned previously the CTC source files for Colorful are gone. Just the links on the main discussion thread are broke. They otherwise are still existing from the file download thread.

October 2, 2024

1 hour ago, Madhead said:

Aw nice one mate you've hit the nail on the head! Only thing is i'm unsure what exact elements need changing? Are the elements i've circled in these pictures what you're on about?

The Background color element is what you refer to as the LHS Rectangle Color yes? And the Full Screen White Background as the RHS one? Do you put the Hardware overlay in it's own grid too? Thanks.

The "hardware overlay" element is definitely one of them that needs adjusting. The element itself, so the one you circled, needs to use the "update during selection" radio bubble. This way the hardware overlay image immediately changes each time you scroll to a new platform in your wheel. This keeps that part of the theme working as the original authors intended.

Then it gets into the understandably confusing part. I know what needs to be done, but may struggle to explain it. So, don't be shy about asking for help, I'll do my best.

If you leave the animation properties tied to that same hardware overlay element it's going to also do the transparency changes, and the position animation change at the same time. Meaning it's going to happen at a wrong time. We need the animation properties to start once selected which means we need to use the "update once selected" radio bubble. Problem here is we are already requiring this element to use update during selection for the image to change when intended. This hopefully explains the reasoning for the disconnect between animations of various elements.

So, to get around this I made a GRID element that will be a PARENT element to the hardware overlay element. This makes the hardware overlay element now a child element to the grid element. I then copied the animation settings from the hardware overlay element, into the new grid element. You will then need to make sure the grid element is using update once selected radio bubble, as well as then remove the animations from the hardware overlay element since we don't want these animations on both elements, it would cause things to be misaligned still.

Putting this together now means the hardware overlay will update during selections, meaning right away. But since we now put the hardware overlay into a parent element that has the animation properties, we can use update once selected for the parent element. This results is the opacity and position changes will happen at the right time. All together, it means it will work just like the authors originally intended.

I'm going off my memory right now, so I could make some screen shots of my CTC settings to make sure I'm not misremembering details.

Full screen background can be left as is I believe.

Background color.....might need an update? If anything it should be "update during selection"....I assume. I think if it is on "update once selected" it still works "OK" but the colors are going to change a few moments later. Like if you are in a playlist that has games from many platforms/systems with different colors, you might see the "old" color for a split second before the selected bindings are read.

I changed names of stuff to make more sense to me. So the "Background color" is not the same as what I called "LHS Rectangle Color". I think that specific element is only in the 1st wheel which is what you show in this image. But just to clarify, from your video you posted you were using the 2nd wheel there. The difference there is the 2nd wheel has the color coordinated background taking up the whole screen. The first wheel always has sort of a dark gray section on the left hand side and puts some of the info into a color conditioned rectangle. The wheels are a little different like that, so there are different adjustments needed for both wheels to animate correctly. I did do the fixes for both, but looking back at my previous posts I see I only really addressed this on wheel 1. Take note some issues also occur on the game selection view (whatever the views are called for selecting the actual game). I do not recall if TextListGameView (or whatever the text list view is called) has some problems too. There are at least 4 views that would need adjusting. Two platform views, and two game views, at least. Possible a 5th would be the TextList one.

There is def more I changed, but don't remember all the details. So I'd have to look at my settings and post them, or something to give more specific details. I already feel like I'm rambling lol

Give it a shot and let me know if you need some more help! I'm willing to share images of my settings or even the CTC files, whatever would help you out.

October 2, 2024

On 9/28/2024 at 7:25 PM, Madhead said:

Right, so does that mean the animations need updating in the theme itself? Fair doos if so. Still though, do you know why the same animations matched up in CTC 2.5.5 but not in the new one? Trippy that.

read up on the theme's thread. I posted details on how to resolve the discrepancies.

On 9/28/2024 at 7:27 PM, y2guru said:

yes the animation start times need to be updated to be in sync as why they match in one version and not in another i couldnt tell you, again not the software, maintained by the author.

I discovered this I guess back in 3.1.3 per my previous post in the linked thread.

Copy/paste the 2.5.5 theme source files into the CTC folder for 3.1.3 (or later/more recent versions) and it seemed all animations are out of sync in 3.1.3+

My experience suggests it is not their start time, or duration, etc parameter/values related to animations.

It is the "update when selected" and "update during selection" radio bubble option that is messing with things. Per my post it seems I concluded they don't really operate the same anymore due to update during selection now occurring earlier when compared to previous versions of CTC. I'm talking about copy/paste of the same files that worked through 2.02 (or whatever version was used to initially make the CTC version of the theme) up to 2.5.5. After 2.5.5 is when I first started noticing the issues that Madhead is also referring to.

August 14, 2024

On 8/12/2024 at 2:47 PM, billy1251971 said:

The exe didn't work for me. I see icon in system tray but nothing shows up on screen, tried clicking on system tray icon but nothing happens. windows 10

i did unblocked after download

May 24, 2024

3 hours ago, Kefka2b said:

Can't find it but it would be nice to have, maybe you found it since or @viking would know if it exists somewhere? I use the "Playlists" media and put my collections there as I don't really use Playlists apart from Light Gun Games which I use as a Root platform category anyways and Arcade playlists like Nintendo classics, Cave etc, which are put as platforms within the Arcade platform category.

May 18, 2024

hi @kobaturtle, would you mind also sharing the "Collections" icon that is used for the category containing all these playlists?

this image shown here

March 15, 2024

1 hour ago, Magno said:

Hi, Everyone. I hope you guys going well!

Its my first time using this and when I tried starting the community theme creator and I get an error:

 at System.Windows.Markup.XamlReader.RewrapException(Exception e, IXamlLineInfo lineInfo, Uri baseUri)
   at System.Windows.Markup.WpfXamlLoader.Load(XamlReader xamlReader, IXamlObjectWriterFactory writerFactory, Boolean skipJournaledProperties, Object rootObject, XamlObjectWriterSettings settings, Uri baseUri)
   at System.Windows.Markup.WpfXamlLoader.LoadBaml(XamlReader xamlReader, Boolean skipJournaledProperties, Object rootObject, XamlAccessLevel accessLevel, Uri baseUri)
   at System.Windows.Markup.XamlReader.LoadBaml(Stream stream, ParserContext parserContext, Object parent, Boolean closeStream)
   at System.Windows.Application.LoadBamlStreamWithSyncInfo(Stream stream, ParserContext pc)
   at System.Windows.Application.LoadComponent(Uri resourceLocator, Boolean bSkipJournaledProperties)
   at System.Windows.Application.DoStartup()
   at System.Windows.Application.<.ctor>b__1_0(Object unused)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler)
   at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeImpl()
   at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeInSecurityContext(Object state)
   at MS.Internal.CulturePreservingExecutionContext.CallbackWrapper(Object obj)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
--- End of stack trace from previous location ---
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at MS.Internal.CulturePreservingExecutionContext.Run(CulturePreservingExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.Invoke()
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.ProcessQueue()
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WndProcHook(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
   at MS.Win32.HwndWrapper.WndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
   at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.DispatcherCallbackOperation(Object o)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler)
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.LegacyInvokeImpl(DispatcherPriority priority, TimeSpan timeout, Delegate method, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
   at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.SubclassWndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
   at MS.Win32.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessage(MSG& msg)
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrameImpl(DispatcherFrame frame)
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrame(DispatcherFrame frame)
   at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.Run()
   at System.Windows.Application.RunDispatcher(Object ignore)
   at System.Windows.Application.RunInternal(Window window)
   at System.Windows.Application.Run()
   at COMMUNITY_Theme_Creator_for_BigBox.Application.Main()
Initialization of 'COMMUNITY_Theme_Creator_for_BigBox.MainWindow' threw an exception.

someone can help me plz

read this thread for the explanation and solution.

February 13, 2024

11 hours ago, Whatscheiser said:

You are my hero right now, man. This is great! I just got done scraping two shows and this does all of the heavy lifting perfectly.

One side note and I apologize if you covered it, but I do have autohotkey on this machine already. Issue was I'm running AHK V2 which didn't want to play friendly with your script. I grabbed AHK V1 to run it and it all worked flawlessly. Only mentioning it in case anyone else has a minute or two of head scratching there.

I love this though. Thanks!

Doesn't look like I specifically mentioned AHK version compatibility. I can add more info in the post on that to clarify for future users, along with instructions for users to link an AHK exe to the .ahk file extension. (someone asked about it in the Third Party App & Plugin thread) I made an assumption here due to the community has been sharing V1 scripts for years and LaunchBox itself includes a V1 executable. So, yes, this is indeed written in V1 syntax and glad you realized the V2 vs V1 thing. (I'm sure V2 threw an error right away) Also really appreciate the confirmation it's running well without issues otherwise!

May 14, 2023

34 minutes ago, izzishor said:

Great additions ❤️ love it, haven't tried it yet, but looked trough the code, seems great.

It would be nice if theese settings were integrated in Bigbox's attract mode...

Right now I'm using a modified version of my code in which I've changed the "close retroarch" action, with plain "send input alt-f4", so it now works for other emulators that get closed by alt-f4 too, even windows games.

it's neat idea you had here! just wanted to polish it up!

You have the right idea with using a universal closing command, but that is still not an ideal situation as it would close some programs in an inappropriate way. Alt+F4 is akin to Process Close which is akin to opening up Task Manager and killing/ending the process. This is a less than ideal way to close programs since some will not be able to execute code that the would otherwise at a normal shutdown. If for example they alter save settings on exit, those saves would not get done and worst case scenario means associated game or emulator files end up wrong, blank, or corrupted. So in the end, the adjustment you're making is a lateral adjustment in my opinion. Might work with more emulators, but I wouldn't recommend doing it like that out of fear of making issues for yourself and others. I wouldn't recommend anyone use that with native windows games, native games have native exiting means that should be utilized whenever possible. WinClose is still a superior option to use since that is the equivalent of clicking the "X" button in the top right corner of a window. Games/programs will shutdown as intended that way and would execute any code triggered by an exit. With that said I recommend altering your script a bit further by avoiding "Process, Close" and sending Alt+F4, but instead make use of WinClose or some other equally safe method.

In order to get it to work with other emulators without the need to edit the specific emulator we need a way to detect which process (emulator/game) is running. Haven't got a good idea on this yet that isn't a bit....well, silly lol. I could make a long if/else ladder that basically goes "if emulator A exists then EmulatorEXE = emulatorA.exe else if emulator B exists then EmulatorEXE = emulatorB.exe......etc etc and so on". This would work, but every emulator would need to specifically spelled out. I know of ways to detect new processes, but it would be impossible to detect if one is an emulator or if one is some random additional app or game launcher etc. I may get creative and find a way to see if I can pass what the emulator is being used or even parse through the platform's XML file to find out what emulator is being used for that specific game and then either pass it as an argument or if needed store into an ini file and read it from there. I think I can get it to into different platforms/playlists too, that would just take a more involved if/else ladder diverting randomly using the random number, or maybe a different random number. Something like after say X games were played in the same platform/playlist, back out one extra step to get to platform/playlist like and then start the loop over after randomly selecting a new platform/playlist. It would be another step like what was configured for considering if game detail view were enabled/disabled

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Steam Scraper

Community Theme Creator

Community Theme Creator

Community Theme Creator

Community Theme Creator

TV Series Scraper

Community Theme Creator

Community Theme Creator

Community Theme Creator

Community Theme Creator

TV Series Scraper

Colorful Collections Videos

Pixelized icons for Collection playlists

Community Theme Creator

TV Series Scraper

Autoplay Attract Mode

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