shadowfire
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Posts posted by shadowfire
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Had a similar problem when I tried to update to 11.4 yesterday (2020-08-30) through the menu. Got an error pop-up during install (sorry, I didn't make a screenshot) and after that LaunchBox.exe wouldn't launch at all. Fixed it for the time being by manually reinstalling 11.3.
First time in years I got an issue updating LaunchBox. I'm on Windows 7 (x64) with these MVC++ 2015 versions:
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Lambda beta is released and available for download!
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Lambda beta
View File
This theme attempt to be minimal and modern and maximise screen estate.
Note: this is a beta release and features may change in future releases.
Installation
- Unzip into LaunchBox\LBThemes directory
- In LaunchBox go to: Options -> Visuals -> Theme: Lambda beta
Windows 7/8 user: Microsoft's “Segoe MDL2 Assets” font ( SegMDL2.ttf ) is required for the buttons and icons to rendered properly. (If you have it it will work but it’s not included here because of licensing reasons.)
Settings guide
tl;dr:
- You may have to tweak your Boxes aspect ratio and spacing.
- The top Details image is only visible when Fanart is available.
- Button bar can't be hidden because of the licensing info.
- Font and colour settings have no effect (font is based on system font).
Settings used in screenshots are:
Options -> Visuals -> Boxes -> Spacing:
Aspect Ratio: 0.6 *
Horizontal Spacing: 2
Vertical Spacing: 2
Horizontal Padding: 8
Vertical Padding: 2
Text Spacing: 4
Text Lines to Show: 2*) For horizontal box art you may need to use a higher value.
Options -> Visuals -> Boxes:
Align Text Vertically : enabled
Align Text Horizontally : enabled
Show Subline : enabled (for platform info)Other recommended settings:
Options -> Legacy -> General -> Game Details:
Show Fanart: enabled
other options at your own preferenceOptions -> Legacy -> Images -> Background Priorities :
Fanart : enabled
other options disabledOptions -> Visuals -> Backgrounds:
Background Blur Amount : 100
Background Fade Amount : 0(Imo. the theme looks best when blurred background Fanart and Details Fanart are the same image.)
Settings that don't have any effect:
- Button bar can't be hidden because the license has to stay visible.
- Colours are hard coded.
- Font (including size and scaling) is based on your Windows system settings.
Thanks to Grila for allowing me to use his LBPlex theme code, Retro808, neil9000, C-Beats and Jason Carr for testing and everyone who supported this release on the forum.
Lambda beta theme CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Shadowfire 2020
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Submitted05/01/2020
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@Retrofrogg, @Tromzy and others: we've finished testing and I'm finalising things for release. The reason why it's taking so long is because I have to squeeze in hours between other projects and on average I've only got a couple of hours per week to work on this. Sorry it's taking this long. I can't make any promises but since I'm almost there it should be available for download soon...
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On 4/15/2020 at 10:15 PM, nullgolem said:
oh wow. excellent theme. very minimal and clean looking with maximimum real estate for game boxes. I especially like a lack of scrolling on the details panel and the integrated fan art or whatever. My only concern would be if it chops text off in certain place/at certain times/on certain views, under the game, boxes but it looks solid and I hope you release it
Thanks, yeah that's what I was going for
As for Details, only the centre row (description, screenshots etc.) scrolls. The other rows resize dynamically in vertical direction depending on available horizontal space.
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11 minutes ago, Retro808 said:
Will do. Looking forward to checking it out.
Did a test just now, I can get away with showing all panels in 800x600 (font size 9) on my system if I hide some stuff in the details panel. (Slight spacing issue in the button bar
but that may be fixable.)
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9 minutes ago, Retro808 said:
Even the default theme does not look good on 4:3 as you have to minimize much of the data/images on the screen to fit. A LB theme to look good would need a relocation of views to really work well on that aspect ratio. My 4:3 cabinets usually run BigBox, but I usually test things on that 4:3 as well just to provide any feedback if possible.
Sure, the theme working on 4:3 would be a nice to have, but as you mentioned full support would mean rewriting the way the views are handled.
But come to think of it, with exception of the details panel this theme might be a bit more lenient on vertical space since I removed the title bar and reduced the button bar height. Also the font size and style is inherited from the OS settings (in case you use small fonts there) and the details fan art image on top right can be turned off which saves some vertical space. So with a bit of tweaking (e.g. boxes sizes and spacing) it may work. Let me know how it works out.
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On 4/10/2020 at 3:19 PM, Retro808 said:
I have a few cabinets with different monitor aspect ratios, resolutions and scaling.
From my own testing the theme isn't too suitable for legacy 4:3 / 3:4 resolutions but could work if you hide the details bar and/or sidebar. (The theme assumes a modernish desktop; enough horizontal space is required to display al the panels and the details bar needs enough vertical space for all three segments.)
The screenshots are made on 1600x900 btw.
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On 4/7/2020 at 3:26 PM, C-Beats said:
Jason is far better at testing user content then I am, and has the ultimate say in regards to whether something gets pulled for being non-compliant.
So what's the best procedure? Should I DM Jason the RC or will he evaluate it when I upload it to the theme section?
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4 minutes ago, neil9000 said:
Yeah no problems testing at 1080p, also i have my system set to 200% scaling, so everything looks the same size as 1080p anyway, just way sharper.
Cool. I'll DM you when the RC is ready
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3 minutes ago, neil9000 said:
Well i am on Windows 10 on a 4K OLED TV, and i also use Retro Achievements, so looks like im a good candidate to test.
Aside from 4K, I assume you're also fine with testing the theme on 1080p? I'm not sure how far I would want to go with 4K support if that turns out to be difficult.
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On 4/7/2020 at 3:26 PM, C-Beats said:
Jason is far better at testing user content then I am, and has the ultimate say in regards to whether something gets pulled for being non-compliant, but I'll gladly take a look for you as time permits. Is there anything in particular you were hoping to confirm is working or not?
(Also @neil9000) Mainly overall user experience. As @Retro808 suggested I'm not focussing on a cleaner code as long as it works for the user.
I've only tested the theme on my system (Window 7 1080p) so at least I'd like to see the theme tested on Window 10. A few things to consider:
- Font: the theme uses the default Windows system font, not the font settings in the Launchbox config. I've tested it on several resolutions and font sizes here which works fine so I'd like to see if it's the same on Windows 10 ...maybe Windows 8? (Also because I've read Windows 10 has a different default font size.)
- Not sure how it will look on 4K resolution.
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There are a few 'tricks' involved to make the theme look and behave as in the screenshots which I probably should mention in a setup guide.
E.g. I've added an optional platform line to the boxes (something I wanted for mixed platform playlists) so the boxes spacing/aspect ratio probably have to be changed in Launchbox settings to make it look right. (I could hardcode it to make it easier for the user but I'm not sure if that's a good idea). Also the theme looks best if the background is set to FanArt with a good amount of blur, with Fanart enabled in Game Details. - I haven't been able to test Retro Achievements.
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There are advanced customisation options which I'll probably keep secret because I don't want to support them
- Things I have overlooked?
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Getting close to a release now. I was thinking, maybe I could do a pre release here so some of you could test the theme for me, see if there isn't anything too wonky in there before I do an official release? (@Jason Carr or moderator: if that's allowed, I know this section isn't meant for theme releases, just want to test the waters.)
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Just posting to let you all know that I'm working on getting the theme ready (straightening code, fixing a few things etc.). If all goes well hopefully I can do the first release within a few weeks.
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7 minutes ago, Rincewind said:
Brilliant news , please keep us updated
Yes of course
I'll do a post here when it's ready.
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@neil9000 @Rincewind @Retro808 @spycat @C-Beats @damageinc86 @Jason Carr @Kondorito @Grila @scooter1974
Thanks all, you've convinced me so I will probably release this theme
Not sure when yet because I still need to do some code cleanup and a few tweaks but hopefully that won't take too long...
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@scooter1974 @neil9000 Thanks. On further reading I see that it's not included by default on older Windows versions so I probably add a note that users of those systems have to download and install the font themselves.
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Hi everyone, I have one more favour to ask. This theme heavily depends on the Microsoft "Segoe MDL2 Assets" font for it's menus and buttons icons. I'm probably not allowed to redistribute the font due to licensing reasons, however I think it's already preinstalled on Windows but I'm not entirely sure...
Can anyone check if this is the case? Windows versions 7/8/10 (I assume no-one runs Launchbox on Vista or below.)
A way to find it is to open up the Control Panel and search for 'Fonts'. Then check if "Segoe MDL2 Assets Regular" is in the list.
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On 3/6/2020 at 4:01 AM, Jason Carr said:
Unfortunately I'm afraid it'll open up a huge can of worms if we just let it slide.
Yeah I can see that might become an issue. Okay sure, I'll go for the compromise. Thanks for your feedback Jason.
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On 3/2/2020 at 11:01 PM, Jason Carr said:
@shadowfire This theme indeed looks amazing. Thanks for your work on it and I do hope that you can share it. I'm fine with moving the license info; my apologies that it's a thing at all, but since we're DRM free, it's our only method of preventing people from sharing or using pirated licenses, so it is somewhat important that it's displayed somewhere. That said, it doesn't really matter a whole lot where, so long as it's there.
Thanks Jason and thanks for clarifying the license info requirement, I understand. One thing is still unclear to me though; should the license info always be visible? Because I made the license info part of the button bar (after some experimentation this seemed the best location) when the user decides to hide the button bar from the View menu, the license info will be hidden as well. Is that allowed?
Otherwise the easiest option I have now is that I can e.g. force the button bar (including license info) to be always visible so the user won't be able to toggle it off from the views menu.
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Thanks all for your positive feedback, really appreciated. I will take your suggestions into consideration.
About the license info button, the note in de code states:
QuotePLEASE NOTE: Below is the portion of the theme that displays the licensed user name. It is required that this info is displayed in the title bar for licensing reasons. Themes that attempt to hide or alter the licensed user name will not be permitted; they will be removed from the forums and banned from future releases of LaunchBox.
Since I removed the title bar and there's no space on top I had to move the license info button somewhere else. Corner right in the button bar seemed ascetically and space-wise the best location. As for the user not able to hide the info: I guess as a compromise I can always disable the "hide Button Bar" functionality but that will mean a minimal UI like in the last screenshot won't be possible.
I'll try to contact someone in charge about how strict the rules are. Also since I forked the code from Grilla's Plex theme I will ask their permission first before proceeding.
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12 hours ago, Rincewind said:
That looks excellent, you definitely should upload it. looking at the screenshots I'll be setting that as my new main LaunchBox theme
really great. Ref the licence code, it looks like you still have the code in there to me.
Yes it's still in there, the placeholder is only temporarily there so I don't have to worry about blurring my real name out in screenshots
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11 hours ago, spycat said:
This is so different and worthy of uploading, a bit like BigBox comes to LaunchBox.
I'm not too sure on how the moving of the user name to the Button bar, which can be hidden, would go down with the folk upstairs.
There was a time when LaunchBox had a fullscreen option which hid the top strip containing the user name, but that seems to have been removed.Yeah, also Big Box themes don't seem to display the license everywhere, but in the end I will respect Jason's rules.
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12 hours ago, neil9000 said:
I have been waiting since Launchbox themes were introduced for someone to move things around in the game details bar, and that looks really good images up top, info down below. Does it support videos as well or is it images only?
Yes it does support video but I haven't done much testing with it since I currently have only have two games with videos
The video box will display above the title and hide the Fanart image. Note that there will be letterboxing on 16:9 videos (which doesn't look great imo) because I haven't figured out a way to change the fixed aspect ratio of the box.
Lambda beta
in LaunchBox for Windows Custom Themes
Posted
Lambda beta is supposed to show the game titles below the cover. Have you set "Game Text Lines to Show" to 1 or greater in the "Spacing" section of LaunchBox config?