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Hi @faeran, thanks to @Thornback's and others similar comments I tried to recreate the problem in the scenarios they described and I was able to. I do not have to actually launch a game to have the video end up as a black screen. I can recreate it every time now by selecting a platform or even going the other way into the options menu at a very specific time frame. Eventually I realized the specific time frame is the actual transition time changing from one video to the next. Basically if I time my button press to be during the actual transition period (ie. as the video does a rotation transition effect) it creates the problem. If I click before, or after the transition effect occurs, the problem doesn't happen. Adding I tried this on multiple themes, not that it wasn't already obvious it wasn't theme specific, but I got it do this on Colorful 4k, Retro Console, Retrotastic, RetroFresh, CoverBox. Not view specific either, platform wheel 1 and and text list with details, that's all I tried but could do it on both of them

I created a custom category for playlists. I called it Collections and have several game series playlists nested under this category in the category/platform tree. All the playlists properly detect that they have games in it, and all my other categories (consoles, handhelds, etc) detect games, but for some reason I don't know why this one category I made doesn't work in Big Box when it comes to detecting the games. It always brings up zero instead. I don't know enough if this is an issue because how I set it up. Making sure it wasn't theme specific I did try Retro Console since that theme also lists total games and it has this same issue with detecting no games for this one custom category. So not theme specific, likely I did something wrong and I turn to you all for some help! For example. The category and the individual playlists work fine displaying this metadata value in LaunchBox However, things don't quite work right in Big Box for me. The Collection category detects nothing so displays 0 games for the count But if you go into the Collections category, all the playlists list their total games properly. So I'm not sure why the category isn't picking up this data? It is supposed to be the total game count metadata Showing the category/platform tree here. This is how I setup the playlists, each nested into the Collections category If you have any advice, I'd appreciate your help! Thank you for reading! Edit: Clarifying I can select and launch all the games in the playlists from the Collections category. It's just this one category that doesn't properly read and display the "total game count" metadata that I'd like to fix

I don't have an (paid) account there so anything I've downloaded, if I remember correctly, have also been sets for the entire system/console. I've gotten video snaps from the internet archive too, which depending on how the uploader actually uploaded them, you might be able to find ones where you can pick and choose rather than have to download the entire set. either that or maybe that site always allows you to view the contents of compressed archives like zips and 7z files, but either way, I think that is the only place I've seen such an option, to download a single video instead of all of them.

I doubt there is a hidden treasure trove of videos of old Windows games tucked away in the proverbial dark corner of the internet if you cannot find what you're looking for at the usual share spots, particularly Emumovies. If all you want is short and sweet gameplay videos and don't care about doing editing to have a fade in/out to the title screen, that sort of stuff, you can achieve this goal yourself. Your GPU should be capable of capturing the screen as you play. Take a look in your GPU's settings (such as AMD Radeon Settings for AMD or Nvidia Control Panel for Nvidia) and there will be hotkeys to toggle recording the display. So what you would want to do is hit that hotkey when you want to start recording, then hit it again to stop the recording and this new video file gets saved in a default folder designated by that program. Usually in the default Windows folder "Videos" this is how I make my own, but I have some very basic video editing skills so I go a step further and do make those fade transitions to the title screen that are found on most game video snaps. if you skip any editing the process is super easy....hit a key twice to make your own video

Hi faeran, sure thing. I am using Colorful 4K with the matched 4K videos. The game details page is used on my setup. I would be exiting out of the game into that game's Game Detail page, then backing out to the Platform View page This really is pretty darn random for me, no consistency with being able to recreate it. I want to say it started in either 12.13 or definitely by 12.14. At first I thought it happened every time I booted into a game, but now I notice that does not guarantee it will occur. It doesn't seem to always happen if I boot into a game and then exit out right away and back out to the platform view. There is somewhat of a noticeable pattern where if I am playing a game for a little bit, say 30mins, that is when it is more likely to occur. That's why I thought it was fixed, I was booting into a bunch of games and exiting out soon as you get to the title screen and backing out to the platform view and no problem! So it tends to be I have to actually play the game for some sort of time to see this issue. But again, it doesn't always happen, for example I played two games last night, one on N64 for about 30mins and when I backed out the video worked fine. I then played an Arcade game for about 30mins and that is where I took the pic of the problem I put in my last post. I know intermittent issues are hard to nail down, so hopefully it gives you all some clues on where to look for the culprit!

great, I'm in the clear! 👍 I think the platform videos not playing problem is solved for me now too on the beta. Sorry false alarm. I still have this problem. I cannot always recreate it but the constants are for me this only impacts platform videos and it only happens if I boot into a game and then back out to the platform view after exiting the game. What I see is a black screen instead of the video and no audio either. If I select another platform the video plays as normal and I can switch back to the one that was a black screen and it will also play OK at this point.

You don't want to be using the frontend's pause screen in actual PC games. that screen suspends the process and this is mostly possible with emulation, but it's much more likely you will have issues trying to use it with a PC game such as a Steam game. any normal Steam game is going to have a built in pause button so it's always better to use the game's native options before going to something external that messes with the game's process. in other words, pause the game the normal way, and exit the game the normal way. I've never gotten overly familiar with Steam Big Picture, but I would bet using it is part of the problem with losing focus and the sorts. LB/BB is a frontend and Steam Big Picture is kinda sorta a frontend wanna be.....I don't see the value in basically using a frontend to launch another frontend to select your game. I haven't noticed others on here mentioning they use Steam Big Picture so I'm under the impression there is little to no desire from users to want that to work, devs likely have never even bothered testing out a setup like yours as a result. I would recommend to totally ditch using Steam Big Picture and use Steam in its "normal" mode/presentation. KiinkyFoxx's advice is correct, that is the way to disable the frontend's pause screen when you are launching an application rather than an emulator. Launching Steam games is considered an application so you do it on a game by game basis but thankfully as they already mentioned there is a built in bulk editor that can change this setting for multiple games simultaneously if you wanted to do them all in one swoop, which depending on how many games you have could end up being a big time saver!

First off, thank you both for the prompt responses! I would fall into that category of having application path start with the steam URL launch prefix. All the application paths are what they default to, the "steam://gameidhere" format. I normally do update right away but I hadn't been on 12.15 yet, it was the reason I was reading this thread to see if there was any reason I'd want to avoid it and this topic caught my attention. So taking a moment this evening to look at this further, I reconfirmed my system was working as expected on 12.14 and updated to 12.15 beta 6 without making any further adjustments. Games launched via Windows Platforms still have both startup and shutdown screens working.....excited it still works, but also scratching my head on why it is not broken. I qualify for the problem to a T if the sole contributor to the enable/disable value is looking for the prefix "steam://" in the application path. I still use the expected URL launch paths in the application path field or what also gets labeled as the ROM file when emulation is enabled....but with a few other settings I need to use to make the whole plan work. I'm thinking something must be overriding the disable option if it still works for me. One out of the norm things being done here is using an "emulator" that has AHK's exe as the application, and that has a script getting launched via the "emulators" default command line parameters. Any chance that is the reason I am skirting around the built in disabling, using the pseudo emulator which is really a script? I know Jason mentioned a script could avoid the change, but it's not what is in the application path so I'm not sure if this bit of info matters.

can you please elaborate? what parameter/value is triggering the game to be detected as a Steam game? Source "Imported from Steam" maybe? Is the shutdown screen permanently disabled for a game identified as a Steam game or do you mean it's unchecked by default and users can enable it manually should they choose to? My interest in this stems from I use a script so all games in my Windows platform have both startup AND shutdown screens working. This includes Steam games and any other launchers that use similar URL launch methods like Uplay or Epic, as well as games launching through an exe or a separate script. Every Windows platform game I own has startup AND shutdown screens working in my case due to the effort I put into making it happen. With that said, please tell me you did not just remove my ability to use shutdown screens on a large handful of my games that are already working for me?

damn nice work! the only one I'm not crazy about is the Streets of Rage one, which still looks great overall, but the word "collection" is a bit funny looking in my opinion crooked like that. You fit collection into all these other logos themes well, but that one looks forced or out of place I suppose

oh geeze yup I didn't zoom in a read the fine print 🤦‍♂️ listed as parent rom based off the file name. I don't know enough about that game to know if you gotta get the BIOS or what it is that is missing. to find what you're missing, google is your pal....wink wink

you're looking right at the solution. you're missing 4 files, seems you have an incomplete ROM or have a clone version w/o the parent, something like that.

NO!!! that was all explaining that the idea of using phony do nothing hotkeys is NOT going to work for what you want to achieve, which is blocking inputs while still executing the rest of your script.....as I say that.......I bet you could simply launch a separate script like you did with the BoxMin one! If you used the concept I went off by placing phony WinMinimize lines, JOE makes a much better point below to use a RETURN instead.....despite me knowing exactly what return does my mind didn't get to that conclusion lol. You could in your steam launcher script put in a line to run a separate new script, I'll refer to as "BlockInputScript" for now. In BlockInputScript you can place bunch of hotkeys with return on them. One of your buttons for ex: "1Joy3::Return" would force it to do nothing. You would want BlockInputScript to launch in your steam launcher script whenever you want the blocking inputs to start, and you can in the steam launcher script tell BlockInputScript to terminate when you want the inputs to stop being blocked. This allows your steam launcher script to continue executing as it normally does, while allowing the fake do nothing hotkeys to work as intended So my last posts were pointing out these work when isolated in my test scripts but it's going to screw up the flow of execution when integrated with your script. Thankfully from you mentioning the new idea you had to make a separate script to minimize BB, you provided the idea to do the same thing to get blocking inputs to work. having multiple separate scripts run simultaneously creates a pseudo muti-threaded execution of AHK, that meaning they can operate independently of each other. I think you just helped yourself and didn't even know it lol. You wouldn't even need to use any context sensitive lines in BlockInputScript. This will suffice. I just tested this in with bigger scripts of mine (with different keys obviously, I've been using j, k l) and it works as I expected it to. PUT THIS IN SOME SEPARATE SCRIPT LIKE "BLOCKINPUTSCRIPT" 1Joy3::Return 2Joy3::Return $1::Return $v::Return THIS IS A MOCK UP OF YOUR STEAM LAUNCHER SCRIPT CODE HERE BLAH BLAH ;NO INPUT BLOCKING YET Run, BLOCKINPUTSCRIPT.AHK ;JOYPAD BUTTONS ARE NOW BLOCKED MORE STEAM LAUNCHING CODE BLAH BLAH ;BLOCKINPUTSCRIPT IS TERMINATED WITH THIS METHOD TO ALLOW INPUTS TO WORK DetectHiddenWindows, on SetTitleMatchMode, 2 WinClose, BLOCKINPUTSCRIPT between your and joe's feedback I think this is finally a solution that will work for your use case, rather than only work as an isolated test. if you're happy with the outcome that's what matters. I'd personally go the route we're mentioning with blocking inputs via a separate hotkey script rather than minimizing the window but I cannot argue against a it's not broken so don't try and fix it mentality either. but I'm wondering, why does this even matter? you're saying hitting a button during booting of a game is creating problems for you then? because that sounds like have(/had) something funny going on, that shouldn't be creating any problems. It does, as you've reiterated what I went through. I get tunnel vision and didn't take a moment to think through how it would interact with his script. none of this will work for what Sbaby wanted to do, despite these ideas working OK when they are isolated as test scripts, the problems arise when they are integrated in with more code.

hmm what I tested does "work" (it works, but not really how we would want it to, explained throughout this post). Irregardless, it sounds like you have gone some other route to achieve the goal....good! but I now see a few problems with that method we have been talking about, and it's a good learning experience. first off, you gotta understand what hotkeys do and how they operate. they execute the code on the same line they are on, OR, if nothing is on the same line, everything below it until something that would stop the thread, like a return or exit, goto, gosub etc. So look at your script closer, each time you would click one of those buttons you would literally be re-executing your script. An example I made to prove this theory if I hit key j it will type out 1 as expected. but if I type out k, since no code is on the same line it executes below and goes to the next hotkey, l, which is doing the same thing with nothing on the same line, so it keeps executing lines up to it would one of the several commands (not sure if command is the right term) such as return tells it to stop. in this ex it stops once it gets to a hotkey with code on the same line, this being the 2nd instance of j. this means if I hit k....sure it does "nothing"......except start executing the rest of the fucking script! that's obviously not "nothing"! hitting k I can hear the soundbeep, and it goes into the next j hotkey that types out 4 instead. meaning despite declaring k first with nothing, hitting k will actually type out 4 in this example script. so this is a pretty flawed method to achieve the goal It would be better to put some actual commands there that pertain to doing nothing. For example, tell the hotkeys to minimize a window that doesn't actually exist. This would work better then the first handful of suggestions. Use a WinTitle that is "fake". I didn't see the problem with keeping them blank right away because the test script I made was just a test, it had no other code in it to run....but as I looked it over again it dawned on me this approach is problematic. So that's how I ended up trying this other test with phony commands on the same line as the hotkey instead of leaving the hotkeys blank. But now as I stare at this test.....still will not work for your use case. if you hit one of those phony hotkeys it will bring the script to that line and stop at the next....stopping execution of your script. which obviously is not desired. I say at this point, this whole idea needs to be abandoned. if we thought better about this, likely woulda saved wasting time trying this lol oh well that's all part of the learning experience

Great details and thanks for the help!

your post helped me figure out something new here. hope this helps you too! I've tried minimizing Big Box in the past, out of pure curiosity reasons, and I never was successful. Even Windows built in function like Win + M which minimizes every window that exists doesn't do it. That just removes focus from Big Box, but it's still always visible. However, after seeing you were using WinMinimize I thought to myself "no way those commands work" and tried it to see what happens.....and it worked in my scenario! my first scenario......not all scenarios are created equal! I assigned it "WinMinimize ahk_exe BigBox.exe" to a hotkey and it works.......if you are just navigating through Big Box, (options, platforms, games, etc.) It only takes one line, no need to duplicate them either. It does NOT work during the startup sequence when the startup themes are displayed! You see a quick flash back and forth between Big Box and the startup theme when I try it at those points so Big Box doesn't minimize at this point of use. So I don't think it is possible to minimize Big Box during the startup. This is a catch 22.....if startup themes are enabled, the very moment you click play the startup theme sequence will begin. So I found it isn't possible to even use an additional app script with this command telling it to launch prior to the main app. Basically you need to not use startup themes if you wanted to minimize Big Box. If you don't use startup themes the command WinMinimize works whether it is included in your main script or an additional app script. That will work for you. Tried an experiment also with using ControlSend to send keys to Big Box when it was minimized and it kinda, sorta, sometimes, worked. Seems like Big Box is "suspended" when minimized, evident that all videos stop playing...or err....usually stop playing. But, this plan of mine worked when I could still hear the videos playing when Big Box was minimized....I don't know why sometimes this happens as it seems somewhat related to if other windows are open and if I click the mouse or alt+tab prior to using the hotkey....I'm not finding the exact pattern to make that work with any sort of real consistency You're not a programmer? Welcome to the club, population you and myself lol! it's ok to not get it right away, I sure don't always get things immediately. The best thing I can recommend is you should try working on LITTLE BITS of script at a time to fully understand how they work, THEN start piecing stuff together to make the whole script. In this example you should be playing around with context sensitive hotkeys, then once you have your "eureka moment" you can start using your newly gained knowledge to add it into bigger scripts like the launcher you made. But here's what you could try specifically. Try declaring them a 2nd time with the 2nd/newer window, like this for ex. This was suggestion #3. Since you're destroying MySplash with line "SplashImage,1:off" it invalidates your context sensitive hotkeys. One of the ways to keep the do nothing hotkeys doing nothing is to then create them again but tied to another window that exists. The 2nd popup you're making is called Splash2, so use that in the same exact way as you did MySplash I do not think you need all those extra braces { btw. The context sensitive lines #If-blahblah work as such any hotkeys that are declared after those lines run, the hotkeys are tied to the context sensitive line until the script exits or if there is another context sensitive line ran, which is what were doing here. Because normally you cannot declare the same hotkey more than once in a script otherwise! (how would AHK to know which hotkey to run if that was the case? that is when you get the error "Error: Duplicate Hotkey" when attempting to run a bad script like that) For example, this below works fine. If I had notepad open, or this exact webpage I'm typing on now because its title is "Auto Hokey Scripts" has "Hotkey" in the name, it makes all those keys do nothing. If I close my internet browser, they still do nothing because notepad is open. So now if I close notepad also, both windows are now closed, and now the keys j, k, and l will type out as normal. Trialing stuff in a small scale like this is how I learn, so it's why I recommend you give it a shot too. Everyone learns at their own pace and their own methods, but it's how I learn new stuff about the AHK language. I gotta understand the small bits before I go stuffing them into a several hundred line script edit: might have worded the above wrong. for example, if I made the first j hotkey type 7 instead, and the 2nd j hotkey type 8 instead. when both windows (my browser and notepad) are open AHK defaults to executing the first hotkey that would be ran. which makes sense. this means I would type 7 if hitting j and both notepad and browser are open. if I close browser, 7 will still type out from the j key. but if I close notepad instead and the browser is still open, now j will type out 8. so in this case when we're using multiple windows for the same context sensitive hotkey, which ever one is activated first in the scripts auto execution sequence will run. for ones to run below it, the first one would need to be invalidated by closing the context window

glad you got it worked out and I see you clarified what I found too, Retro Console BB. But I'm hoping you could clarify further, I noticed there are at least two different versions of this custom theme, and I'm not 100% clear if one or the other offers the same layout you were utilizing in your video. I'm going to hazard a guess you are using something like "text view" (I'm sure that is not the right term, but hope it gets my point across) because all the game titles are simple text rather than game specific logos like the "wheels" used in many themes. I like the icons used particularly also. Do you know which one specifically you are using? There is a 2.1.4 version, and a 3.0.6 version If I had to guess, yours looks closer to the photos shown in 2.1.4 2.1.4 link for reference 3.0.6 link for reference When I looked at the newer one, 3.0.6 I don't see any photos on that page that look similar to your theme. For ex, I do not want themes looking like this one shows where the layout mimics the appearance of the console as a bezel. So I'm asking because maybe the newest one still has all the same support for the appearance that was used in 2.1.4 but maybe it just isn't showcased in the thumbnail images the creator uploaded to the download page. I dont' want a theme that looks like this But I DO want a theme that looks like this. Which I think looks like the one in your video Long winded way to say, "Can you please tell me exactly which version of the theme you're using?" LOL I'm just trying to avoid downloading the wrong one

OK so all that confirms the script is doing what you told it to do then. You tied the context sensitive hotkeys to a window (MySplash) that shows up for a moment and then is "destroyed" just a few lines later when "Splashimage,1,off " is ran. The only time those "do nothing hotkeys" will work as you intend them to is between creating them and the time it takes Splash2 window to appear, which is before any game is launching, hence why you're inputs are still being detected while the game boots. That Splashimage off command destroys the window which the context sensitive hotkeys that are supposed to be blocking joypad inputs are dependent on. So they will not work anymore, meaning your inputs WILL be detected. This comes down to needing to design the script structure better so it suits your needs. There are options to get it done. A couple being the context sensitive hotkeys need to be tied to another window that exists during the whole duration you're are trying to block inputs. Or you could leave the current MySpalsh window existing for a longer period of time. Or you can tie them to the current MySplash window as you currently are but when MySplash is destroyed, create the hotkeys again but tie them in context to "Splash2" window existing, etc. You will have to experiment to see what method works best for you, I'm sure there are other ways to achieve the goal beyond what I just mentioned also. To clarify, I wasn't saying you need to remove that line, I was pointing out I think that it is the main culprit of why the do nothing hotkeys aren't working as you intended. Which you have confirmed this is the case. It's the culprit, how you go about fixing it will be up to you but now you know why it's doing what it's doing.

looks like you already tried what I would have suggested, using context hotkeys with something like #IfWinExist. I'm surprised that wouldn't get the job done. But I would use #IfWinNotExist and the context would be a WinTitle format of the game, you couldn't use ahk_exe gameoverlayui.exe since it creates no window! The hotkeys being linked to nothing would do nothing during the boot, and once the game window appears the context hotkey is now invalid and the joypad sends inputs as intended. Not seeing anything super obvious right away. Using this method works for me, so should for you too then...right? I used different keys since I don't have a dinput joypad but worked fine using keyboard keys. I tested with Notepad and the game Streets of Rage 4, having those context sensitive hotkeys only enable if those windows existed. That splashimage should work, but why doesn't it work already? Does "MySplash" close when "Splash2" opens? If so, I think that's your problem.... Looks closer.........BINGO....I think it does... here on line 53! Wouldn't this make those context sensitive hotkey invalid as soon as this line runs? SplashImage,1:off

Yes, create a "playlist" and add the games you want to see in that particular playlist. You can also create playlists that auto generate off a bunch of different parameters, one for ex is recently played

Scroll up to the top of this page and click on Premium and then Get Premium With Big Box to get yourself familiar with what the differences are. It's going to be subjective (this looks nicer than that), and objective (what do you want out of your frontend) reasons for making a decision to stay on LB or upgrade to BB. There are some more functions available in BB, and it has more customization for making a clean frontend experience that many enthusiasts prefer especially when putting their systems in an arcade cab

Edit Game > Startup/Pause > Override Default Startup Screen Settings Then click click Customize to adjust to your liking Startup themes are totally optional. No need for scripting because there is already a feature that lets you customize these settings down to as fined tuned as the per game level. In your case you could try turning up the delay time on the slider so the startup screen displays longer for the games that take more time to startup, or turn them off completely if that is all you're after.

there is a built in feature....have a look in the tools menu. With that said, setup a hotkey for it and you're all set. For ex below making the home key the hotkey. Making it go to other platforms when in a platform sounds tricky. If you wanted to select random games from the entire library I'd suggest you go into the category "All" and use the hotkey there Home:: Send {LCtrl down}{LAlt down}{q down}{q up}{LAlt up}{LCtrl up} *Edit* Apologies...I had LB open and tested this there and it works. But using that designated key combo doesn't seem to part of BB. So I went looking for a BB equivalent assuming there was one. Doesn't appear to be an exact 1:1 equivalent. BUT, there is under BB options > Keyboard Mappings you will find a setting called "Spin Wheel While Pressed" so you can assign that to any key you want, press it and does exactly what it says, spins the wheel. Kinda neat, it keeps momentum going briefly after release, much like it has a natural deceleration. So this could be used to randomly select anything in BB, categories, playlists, platforms, or games.

yes, sorry I didn't elaborate any further because kiinkyfoxx did such a thorough job 👍 I had nothing of value to add other than to say "mine works OK". But since you're still having trouble, I'll add what I can For yuzu, I see a small change I doubt is the cause but pointing it out. I do NOT have "Attempt to hide console window on startup/shutdown" in the Yuzu emulator details tab in LB. But again, this shouldn't matter because If I toggle these settings I cannot recreate your issue. Still on yuzu.....Seeing how I can get this to work with less settings, did you try turning this stuff off too? a 5 second slider time is what I use for the delay. When I enable these settings it seems it is hiding the window that shows the shaders compiling so puts a black screen up during that portion should the start screen already faded out. So again not so sure this is helpful, because I didn't totally recreate the issue. Even putting a silly long delay of 30 secs yuzu should be launching into exclusive fullscreen which will take over the display and steal focus. Therefore cutting off the startup screen prematurely from it's user setting.....just like the notes are described by the developers in LB. the "-f" parameter is what launches yuzu as fullscreen, but it doesn't designate exclusive or borderless, that is done in the emulator. When I entered 30 secs yuzu still displayed the game in ~10 secs which is on par with the time it takes my system to compile the shaders and launch the game normally, working exactly as intended as the devs describe in the LB notes. Are you using EXCLUSIVE fullscreen here in yuzu? borderless fullscreen can cause problems like this. I got stuck on a black screen after the startup screen faded out using it, and if I clicked the mouse, the shutdown screen appears and does it fade out and now the game window visible. Sooooo sorta sounds like the same problem you're having? I hope this is the culprit, it would totally explain the problem if this fixes it! Does seem like the smoking gun if you will I'm not finding a smoking gun for RPCS3 quite yet though. Doing our due diligence we should check the equivalent setting in RPCS3 here. It should be off....but I'll admit this didn't recreate the issue if I enabled it just now. My startup and shutdown screens worked the same prefect way with this on or off....but to be clear off is better, exclusive fullscreen is superior. I got the other screens too, some other settings are used, but I don't think they come into play with your issue (hiding the mouse settings for example shouldn't impact this). The fact you can "get control" back from hitting escape means the emulator is running in the background so you are exiting it as intended through your exit hot key (which you should change the same exact script you had in yuzu. don't close emulators via the process command since it is the equivalent of nuking them through task managers end task. so ONLY use that as an absolute last resort to close an emulator. RCPS3 works fine with the script you have in yuzu). Otherwise....sorry....I'm not finding anything else yet that sticks out that causes your issue with RPCS3. I think I've scrutinized every setting you and KiinkyFoxx shared. If I didn't share my specific settings, it's because they were the same as shared by kiinkyfoxx. I tried to only point out my differences. By the way, sorry to go off on the tangent as you're looking for help, but I really like the theme you are using here, your favorite as you described, but I didn't catch the name of the theme? Can you please tell me which theme this is? Nvm....I shoulda used the search function before asking, it was easy to find!

I'm not using the fullscreen parameter and I am using DX, looks like it was the default being the top most in the list. I'll try Vulkan since I got an AMD GPU, they seem to usually pair well together on emulators. I do have Render to Main window checked. Drum roll please......🥁 Sweet, it works! 🎉 Now my problem is I cannot recreate the issue lmao because I wanted to figure out what change fixed it. Render API change doesn't matter, works with DX and Vulkan. I did my silly setup to hide GUI flashes and not get stuck on a blackscreen, but this looks even smoother at start up, immaculate actually....as intended of course. No reasonable explanation from me on wtf I did wrong initially to make the normal fullscreen parameters not work. I could have sworn I tried all this stuff without success hence why I wouldn't have used these intended developer designed methods, but glad they are working now after your advice. Either way, thanks for the help again Overlord!