Jason Carr

A new beta is out guys, but the only change for this beta is for the Big Box custom themes. The themes can now include platform images that will override what the user has in their collection. I'm hoping to record some more Big Box custom theme tutorial videos this afternoon as well.

Thanks guys. @ThePolish I'm hoping to look at some of those issues this afternoon. @shinra358, we just added something to help with that, though it's probably not what you're expecting. At the end of the wizards you can sort by file extension and then easily remove any files that shouldn't be imported by selecting them all and pressing the Delete key.

Alright, new beta is out that adds new platform image folders for the themes; take a look at the Default theme when you can @niglurion. Basically, the way this works, is if you include platform images in the right folders inside the theme, they will always override whatever images the user has set up in their collections for as long as that theme is used in Big Box. Of course the user will be able to customize these images themselves as well, so I don't see that as much of an issue as far as flexibility. This should allow theme creators to include images automatically with their themes for the various platforms. Let me know @niglurion if anything isn't obvious or if something isn't working. To update the theme it would probably be best to re-copy the Default theme and then just replace any XAML files you had changed for the previous version of the theme. It's also important to note, of course, that these changes won't work for anyone without a beta release at this point, but I'm hoping to put out an official release relatively soon. Also going to try and record some more custom theme tutorial videos this afternoon.

Glad it's working @niglurion. I did some further tests with the background images and yes, it is possible to use the same approach. However, it's not ideal because the transition animations aren't working properly when we take that approach. So what I think I'm going to do for that is just to allow you to add some images to the theme folder that are named by the platform name, and change the code to automatically pick those up if they exist. So once that is completed, distributing the backgrounds or other platform images with a theme will be easy as pie.

Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light." Matthew 11:28-30 I am weary and do carry heavy burdens; I receive my rest from the Lord. My relationship with Jesus turns meaningless, wearisome toil into productivity and purpose. Life has not been made easy for me, but rather I have been given a great sense of accomplishment and desire to continue to work for the Lord.

Looking awesome @nosh. If you could upload this theme to the Downloads section, that'd be awesome. The downloads can be replaced with newer versions as you improve it, so no need to worry about waiting until the theme is all done. I do really like the glow on the boxes. It's neat to see new stuff like that done.

I see, thanks David. I see similar results on machines without decent video cards (though the frame rates are much better than that). It seems like somehow video acceleration is turned off in Big Box, or something of that nature. I think it's possible to turn it off for the Windows OS interfaces, which would probably also affect WPF and Big Box. Any chance that could be turned off? Or maybe is there a video driver update available?

Got it @Domarius. It was my fault, I somehow let it slip through the cracks. My apologies for that. Reading.

Thank you all. Good conversation and all makes sense. The Atari ST platform seems to be unique in needing both ROMs separately in the command line to launch the game, so that will be a pain in the rear to fix. But good to know about that for sure. The rest of the platforms should be fixable just by pulling in the relevant data from the Hyperspin XMLs and expanding on the existing solution for MAME. This is indeed pretty high up on the priority list. I would appreciate if someone could compile a list or a package of the Hyperspin XMLs that we do need to integrate to fix the imports. @Styphelus I had an issue on the previous forums where I kept forgetting about the PMs and wasn't getting emails for them. It was my stupid, sorry for that. Going forward I get an email for every PM, so that should work to reach me. I'm also trying to do a better job responding to people now that I have Kirsten's help and such. My tendency is to hide in the code so I'm making an active effort to come out of my cave more often. That said, I am somewhat swamped, as usual, so please bear with me if I take a few days to respond.

Welcome, @onebadveggie! Sorry it's not under better terms but glad we got it fixed. Let me know guys if you see any more issues with the latest beta; it is out now. Thanks!

My apologies @Domarius, but I actually didn't get the email! I'm not sure why. I assumed you had decided not to and moved on.

Good to know, @Sepulchre. I have a feeling that the performance issue is most likely due to the Coverflow controls. How quick does it work for you for the other views?

Lolololol. Dangit, how'd you guys know?

Thanks guys. It is very easy to add additional things to search for so I will go ahead and add square brackets to the mix. Do keep in mind that you still need the latest beta release (not just the latest official release) in order to take advantage of this feature.

Great to hear, @niglurion. Thanks as always.

Yes, this is a highly requested feature and should be coming soon.

Gotcha. That really helps to clear it up. Thanks, David. Performance-wise we do still seem to have an issue though that needs resolved. If you could record that video, I think that would help. Let me know how testing goes with the latest beta that I just put out though. Thanks again.

Gotcha @Freestate. Do we have a ticket for that in the LaunchBox Games Database BitBucket?

Good thoughts @nosh, appreciate. And thank you @Zombeaver for clearing that up. Yes, we will be adding region support and separation to platforms so you'll be able to identify which system(s) a game came out on.

Thank you very much, @kmoney. I am currently researching those issues. I also have a ticket in with the creator of Meta.Vlc which is our library that we use to interface with VLC to help with some additional issues. I just put out a new beta with the following fixes: - Fixed: Images are no longer renamed unnecessarily when editing games if they already existed; will help prevent issues when using the same image folders for multiple frontends - Fixed: Little tiny feint (and rare) graphical glitches on clear logos in the games wheels have been fixed thanks to code suggested by Nielk1 on the forums - Fixed: Viewing images fullscreen in Big Box had an odd issue where returning to the start of the list would not update and show the first image - Fixed: The PlatformTitle property used for Big Box custom themes in the platforms views was not working properly

@CriticalCid may be interested in the above solution as well.

Looks like we have an issue with extra spaces in the code above, so I'm attaching the code file here as well. PlatformWheelImageDetailsThumbsFiltersView.xaml

Good news, everyone! I have a solution for changing out the gif for each platform. First off, this will only work with the latest beta I just put out, so make sure you update to the latest beta before giving this a shot @niglurion (or anyone else who wants to try it on their own). I had a glitch with the PlatformTitle property which is the reason why the latest beta is required. This is for the PlatformWheelImageDetailsThumbsFiltersView.xaml file, of course. The code is listed below. First off, note the ContentControl tag on line 51. This replaces the previous Image control used for the gif and allows us to instead use a dynamic solution instead. The other more complicated piece is the UserControl.Resources element that begins on line 10 and ends on line 32. Inside of this element is a DataTemplate element that defines the logic for replacing out the gif. Notice how the x:Key property of the DataTemplate is "AnimatedImageTemplate", which matches up to "{StaticResource AnimatedImageTemplate" in the ContentTemplate tag of the ContentControl. Immediately inside of the DataTemplate tag is the Image tag that is actually displayed. Underneath the Image tag is a tag called DataTemplate.Triggers that defines DataTrigger elements for each platform that should have a different gif. Notice how the Value properties of the DataTrigger elements match up to the names of the various platforms. Then, inside of those elements you see Setter elements that define the target element (which is our AnimatedImage), the target property, and most importantly the Value to set, which is the path to our gif file for that platform. Whew. Hopefully that's mostly understandable. I know this isn't necessarily an easy solution to understand, but it does help to show how powerful XAML is in providing custom logic to do pretty much anything. I will be putting out a series of tutorials on data binding and other stuff like this very soon, as well. Let me know @niglurion if you need any further help in understanding how this all works. Thanks all! <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:transitions="clr-namespace:BigBox.Transitions;assembly=BigBox" xmlns:coverFlow="clr-namespace:BigBox.Controls.CoverFlow;assembly=BigBox" xmlns:gif="clr-namespace:WpfAnimatedGif;assembly=BigBox" mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignHeight="562" d:DesignWidth="1000" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Style="{DynamicResource UserControlStyle}"> <UserControl.Resources> <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type ContentControl}" x:Key="AnimatedImageTemplate"> <Image x:Name="AnimatedImage" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" VerticalAlignment="Center" Margin="0" HorizontalAlignment="Left" > <Image.Effect> <DropShadowEffect/> </Image.Effect> </Image> <DataTemplate.Triggers> <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding Path=PlatformTitle}" Value="Nintendo 64"> <Setter TargetName="AnimatedImage" Property="gif:ImageBehavior.AnimatedSource" Value="pack://siteoforigin:,,,/Themes/CleanBG/img/Nintendo64.gif" /> </DataTrigger> <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding Path=PlatformTitle}" Value="Sony Playstation"> <Setter TargetName="AnimatedImage" Property="gif:ImageBehavior.AnimatedSource" Value="pack://siteoforigin:,,,/Themes/CleanBG/img/SonyPlaystation.gif" /> </DataTrigger> <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding Path=PlatformTitle}" Value="Nintendo GameCube"> <Setter TargetName="AnimatedImage" Property="gif:ImageBehavior.AnimatedSource" Value="pack://siteoforigin:,,,/Themes/CleanBG/img/NintendoGameCube.gif" /> </DataTrigger> <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding Path=PlatformTitle}" Value="Nintendo Entertainment System"> <Setter TargetName="AnimatedImage" Property="gif:ImageBehavior.AnimatedSource" Value="pack://siteoforigin:,,,/Themes/CleanBG/img/NintendoEntertainmentSystem.gif" /> </DataTrigger> </DataTemplate.Triggers> </DataTemplate> </UserControl.Resources> <Canvas Name="Canvas"> <transitions:TransitionPresenter TransitionSelector="{Binding BackgroundTransitionSelector}" Content="{Binding BackgroundView}" Height="{Binding ElementName=Canvas, Path=ActualHeight}" Width="{Binding ElementName=Canvas, Path=ActualWidth}" IsContentVideo="true" /> <Grid Height="{Binding ElementName=Canvas, Path=ActualHeight}" Width="{Binding ElementName=Canvas, Path=ActualWidth}"> <Grid.Background> <SolidColorBrush Color="Black" Opacity="{Binding BackgroundFade}" /> </Grid.Background> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="42*" /> <ColumnDefinition Width="4*" /> <ColumnDefinition Width="92*" /> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <coverFlow:FlowControl x:Name="FlowControl" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Grid.Column="0" CoverFactory="{Binding CoverFactory}" ImageType="ClearLogo" CurveAmount="0" CameraZPosition="3.0" VisibleCount="14" PageSize="6" > <coverFlow:FlowControl.Effect> <DropShadowEffect ShadowDepth="7"/> </coverFlow:FlowControl.Effect> </coverFlow:FlowControl> <Grid Grid.Column="1"> <ContentControl Content="{Binding}" ContentTemplate="{StaticResource AnimatedImageTemplate}" /> </Grid> <Grid Grid.Column="2"> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition Height="5*" /> <RowDefinition Height="52*" /> <RowDefinition Height="2*" /> <RowDefinition Height="25*" /> <RowDefinition Height="0*" /> <RowDefinition Height="25*" /> <RowDefinition Height="5*" /> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <Grid Grid.Row="1"> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="44*" /> <ColumnDefinition Width="4*" /> <ColumnDefinition Width="57*" /> <ColumnDefinition Width="4*" /> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> </Grid> <transitions:TransitionPresenter Grid.Row="3" TransitionSelector="{Binding TopBoxesTransitionSelector}" Content="{Binding TopBoxesView}" RenderTransformOrigin="0,1" Margin="0,0,-285,0"> <transitions:TransitionPresenter.RenderTransform> <TransformGroup> <ScaleTransform ScaleX="0.8" ScaleY="0.8"/> <SkewTransform/> <RotateTransform/> <TranslateTransform/> </TransformGroup> </transitions:TransitionPresenter.RenderTransform> </transitions:TransitionPresenter> <transitions:TransitionPresenter Grid.Row="5" TransitionSelector="{Binding BottomBoxesTransitionSelector}" Content="{Binding BottomBoxesView}" RenderTransformOrigin="0,1" Margin="0,0,-286,0" > <transitions:TransitionPresenter.RenderTransform> <TransformGroup> <ScaleTransform ScaleX="0.8" ScaleY="0.8"/> <SkewTransform/> <RotateTransform/> <TranslateTransform/> </TransformGroup> </transitions:TransitionPresenter.RenderTransform> </transitions:TransitionPresenter> </Grid> </Grid> </Canvas> </UserControl>

Thank you @Sepulchre. I did some work on this stuff in the live stream this morning; I also contacted the developer of the Meta.VLC library that we're using to see if he can help us figure out how to fix some of the remaining VLC issues. Here's the issue I put in on Github: https://github.com/higankanshi/Meta.Vlc/issues/150 Historically he's been very responsive in responding there so I'm hoping he can help us fix some of the issues. In the mean time, switching to the Windows Media Player engine should eliminate pretty much all of the issues; let me know if not.

Alright, I'm still unable to replicate the disappearing images issues in CoverFlow, David. Can you explain the issues that you're still seeing since yesterday's beta? Are you seeing any disappearing images? Or just performance issues? It also sounds like it's happening with you existing installation but doesn't seem to be happening with a new installation, which is interesting. Are you using the same image folders between the two installations?