Zombeaver

I'll pick some stuff out of there. Jaguar and Amiga will probably be next. CriticalCid said - As I have Cave as a separate platform could you change the text of your Arcade wheel into “Cave” and create a new Arcade one which features a classic character like Pac-Man or Space Invaders? I would prefer “MAME” as name for this new logo as well. I should be able to make that happen. CriticalCid said - Change the text from “Genesis” into “Mega Drive” and from “Sega CD” into “Mega CD”. Your European friends will be thankful :) I had actually already planned to do this, I just hadn't gotten around to it yet. Are there actual default platforms in Launchbox for those variants and are they named "Sega Mega Drive" and "Sega Mega CD"? I want to make sure it's correct for incorporation into the Easy version. If there isn't a default and they're custom platforms as far as Launchbox is concerned, I would just add them in as variants in the -Alternate Versions- folder. CriticalCid said - The official spelling of PlayStation is with a capital S. So I would definitely prefer a version with the correct diction. You know, just OCD things ;) That looks weird as hell to me...but okay haha. My initial intention was to use "PSX" but I didn't want people flipping out about not using "PS1" (which I refuse to use) or (less likely) confusing it with the completely irrelevant Japan-only DVR-variant PS2.

More noodling:

Yeah, I went in knowing that the text was going to be illegible because most of it would be covered up - that's why I opted to have no spacing between each letter so that it's basically just a big shape, the name is just determining what the shape looks like...if that makes any sense haha. Unlike the clear logos, legibility doesn't really matter here; the text is just serving as a means to add visual interest. I'm just having a hard time deciding what I really like here. I want it to be simplistic enough that it doesn't get in the way or clash with the rest of the art/text but interesting enough that there's actually some point in making/using them. I'm trying to decide whether or not I should go in a different direction altogether and whether or not this is something anyone (myself included) would even want to use

The topic of creating platform backgrounds was raised in the clear logo thread so I've been doing some experimenting and I want to get a feel for what people like and if this is something worth pursuing. The first thing I tried was something similar to the clear logos I made. (fullscreen view is recommended) I think this looks pretty cool but it might also be a bit too busy when everything's together in Big Box. I'm not sure. So then I thought maybe I'd see how they looked without any text at all. These definitely look cleaner in Big Box, but I think they'e a bit boring/generic honestly. So then I took the baby bear approach and tried something a bit in between with some very simple text. I think this adds a bit of visual interest while still looking relatively clean within Big Box. What do you guys think? Any particular preference? Any ideas?

The opening post has been updated with download links. Let me know if you have any issues or questions. The "Easy" version install instructions sound more complicated than they really are. The whole process takes about 5 seconds. I just wanted to be thorough

Yep, pretty sure I'm physically incapable of doing something simple haha. That's how this started, but I kept fiddling and fiddling and adding stuff I'm fairly certain something like this would look awful as a background.

Right, but the problem is that you'll see very little of that in reality in Big Box. The right side is covered in the platform banner, platform description, favorites and recent lists and the left side is covered in clear logos. I'm not completely opposed to it, it's just that it'll probably have to be really simple looking. You had asked for something in a similar style to these logos and I just think it'll clash too much or be too busy if I were to do that. I probably wouldn't even use characters like in your examples. I'm thinking something along the lines of a simple pattern and a really large "stamp" of the name of the platform; you wouldn't really be able to read it (because you wouldn't be able to see all of it) but could figure it out based on context.

You can find the changelog under the help menu in Launchbox.

CriticalCid said That’s why I use either very simple, dark or black&white backgrounds for my platforms. Yeah, I'm thinking they'll have to be somewhat simple to keep from clashing too much. Black and white is probably a good call too. CriticalCid said My post was just a generally statement how I feel about video backgrounds and not an additional request for you to great some background images. I’m more interested to see a full set of your logos for all the systems I use first ;) Oh yeah, I understand. Getting a feel for what to prioritize for logos going forward is the primary thing on the agenda once I get the pack out. I've already got everything in my own library covered so it's kinda just whatever people need at this point. If there's some platforms in particular that you're looking for, I'm all ears. alexis524 said zomb, awesome work as usual! I love the Skyrim reference in your Windows logo and the third Gameboy logo you posted just above is hella sweet! Thanks for creating and sharing. Thanks! I'm glad somebody likes the Gameboy filter, that was actually a bit tricky. Gameboy screens are not black and white in reality - they're actually more of a dark-green (black) and yellow-green (white). I think I got it a bit too dark honestly, but eh, it was mostly just an experiment.

CriticalCid said I just don’t like it when the video is covered with all the text and images. It looks kinda messy to me... Well that's exactly why I'm not entirely thrilled with making backgrounds haha. I'm really particular about how these look, so the idea that 75% of them would be covered in other images and text makes me a little "Mehhhh..." haha. It's not out of the question, it just presents some additional problems that I'm not sure how I can resolve currently. I'll do some experimenting though.

It will show the individual file names in the details pane on the right. As far as the actual name for the entry itself, they ignore text within special characters like that by default. You can overwrite the entry name in the final page of the import process if you want. There is an option to use the containing folder name rather than the file name for the import, but I'm not sure about a complete file name option; I don't think there is one.

I don't like them for backgrounds for individual games, just for platforms. I think the "System Intro" videos are perfect for that purpose because they're just montages of games for various platforms. For individual games I prefer the normal format far and away though, and for those I use per-game "fanart" for the background. I'll mess around with making some backgrounds and see what I can come up with.

keltoigael said These are freaking beautiful dude. I love the originality of them. Thanks! keltoigael said Here is the real big question because I too suffer from OCD. What about some matching backgrounds of not necessarily the same image but of the same quality and feel? I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Like a background image while hovered on a platform? I use background videos for platforms so that's not something I'd really considered. Have you tried messing with that at all? I guess if there's enough interest, I could work on making some, I guess I just assumed that everybody used background videos haha.

lordmonkus said @Zombeaver What VDP2 Ram timing are you using ? Mine is checked on and Buffer Size is 24. I just went into the EZ Settings tab and clicked the Full Compatibility and left it at that other than turning V-Sync off. That's the same as what I'm using. Hmm... I would swear I had to turn it on manually. Maybe I used a different starting template or maybe it just wasn't always included in Full Compatibility. I'm not sure.

8Phantasm said Well, I had Vsync off and VDP2 RAM Write Timing on but DonPachi was unplayable for me. Those are definitely the big two for input lag. I've never actually tried any version of DonPachi other than arcade. It's possible there's some hiccup with it, in particular, I'm not sure. Anything else you've tried (other than that and Guardian Heroes)? I've got Blast Wind, Hyper Duel, Metal Black, Radiant Silvergun, Steam-Heart's, and Thunder Force V setup with SSF, when it comes to shmups. Thunder Force V does have noticeable input lag that I've been unable to get rid of since that game doesn't seem to like VDP2 RAM Write Timing. I opt for the PSX version of that one. The others seem to be pretty good though. Blast Wind: Moderate Lag; Playable Hyper Duel: Moderate Lag; Playable; you're probably better off with the arcade version for it though Metal Black: Low Lag; Playable Radiant Silvergun: Low Lag; Playable Steam-Heart's: Low Lag; Playable Thunder Force V: High Lag; Unplayable Obviously like you said, the degree to which this is noticeable varies from person to person but I think I'm fairly aware of it as I play a lot of shmups. 8Phantasm said If you have the best settings for SSF, I'm open to try them. I still have it installed to test games out. The problem there is that, like I said, SSF is so finicky when it comes to settings that they often have to be tweaked game by game, not unlike PCSX2 honestly. There really isn't a one-size-fits-all settings solution for SSF, unfortunately, which is frustrating but at least in the newest version per-game configs are created automatically so that takes some of the tedium out of it. Often though, things can be improved with some fiddling. This was the guide I used as a starting point years ago; unfortunately, it's out of date but it does help give you a better idea of what settings do what and how certain things can impact performance. It's still useful, I think. If there's any games in particular you'd like me to take a look at, I'd be happy to. I can't promise any miracles but it can't hurt. 8Phantasm said I'm not looking to just play something just because it's the best we got, though. I like using real hardware in cases where the emulation is not up to par. Oh don't get me wrong, I agree with that mentality wholeheartedly. If something is just too far off I don't bother, even if it's my only option. I guess I just don't think SSF is as bad as you're implying haha. If Yabause were the only option, for example, I would steer very clear of Saturn emulation altogether. I happen to think nullDC is a pile of trash too. Demul isn't perfect but it's at least close enough that it's within tolerance for me; though, once again, requiring a good deal of game by game tweaking.

Alright, this will be the last one prior to the release of the pack. I want to do a little bit of additional testing just to make sure everything's good to go and the process is as user friendly as I can make it, but I'll be releasing that tomorrow. Normal: Scanlines: And here's an alternate version that's my attempt at replicating the look of a Game Boy screen... I'm just gonna go ahead and say I failed but it was fun to experiment with regardless. Alternate:

8Phantasm said I'm not using Vsync and I didn't change a bunch of settings in the emulator, if that's what you are thinking. Actually, I was thinking that not changing a "bunch of settings" was probably precisely your issue. In my experience, none of the versions run all that great with default or near default settings. SSF requires more tweaking than just about any other emulator I've ever used in order to be tolerable. But hey, if you don't want to take the time to try to fix your issue, nobody's forcing you. It's far and away the best (I would argue only, really) option currently for Saturn emulation so I'm not sure why you wouldn't, but that's your call. I'm not saying that that there's zero input lag, of course, just that it's not significantly worse than any other emulator with some tweaking. VDP2 RAM Write Timing, for example, yields a noticeable improvement in input lag and I'm almost positive that's turned off by default. With that turned on and vsync off I was just playing Metal Black without any issues. I then switched over to Retroarch Mame and played it there, with Hard GPU sync on and a frame delay of 6. There's barely any perceptible difference, if at all. Going along with what lordmonkus said, there could be game by game instances where the disparity is greater, but I think tossing SSF aside with a blanket statement of "It has atrocious input lag. Unusuable." is cutting yourself off from access to some great games unnecessarily.

Yeah, that's true; it's predicated on people having either the default files or new files that are named identically to the default ones. I guess I had just assumed that that would be true for everyone because, prior to now, I had been under the impression that these image files needed to follow the same strict naming convention as other images that LB looks for. Hmm... oh well; not a huge deal!

Jason Carr said Also, it's important to note that the platform images can be named anything as long as they're in the right folders. So unfortunately overwriting will never work anyways. Actually... I don't quite understand this bit. I get that they can be named anything as long as they're in the right folder, but why would this prevent overwriting from working? If my files are named identically to the only other files that are in the existing clear logo folders (which should, by default, be named identically to the name of the platform)... then why wouldn't it work? The only thing that's stopping it currently is the fact that mine are named [platform name].png instead of [platform name].jpg I mean, even in the current state - once the default logo files are deleted - the filename/folder structure in the pack is setup so that people can swap between normal and scanline versions by overwriting (because the files are named identically) - you just copy the scanline -> images folder into the Launchbox folder to overwrite the normal versions and vice versa. ...does that make sense? haha You'll open it up and see this: If you go into either "Normal" or "Scanlines" folders you'll then have a folder structure of Images -> Platforms -> [individual platform folders for each platform covered in the pack] -> Clear Logo -> [platform name].png If you want to swap from one version to another you just drag the "Images" folder from either version and merge/overwrite. That would even work with the default files... if they had the same file extension haha. Sorry, I'm probably wasting time on minutia here

Jason Carr said Ah yeah, I forgot about that bug, @Zombeaver. LaunchBox doesn't care and I hardcoded the extension that it writes out without thinking about it a long time ago. I'll put a fix for this on my shortlist. But yeah, sadly, people's existing files won't automatically get fixed when I do. Gotcha. I figured it was something along those lines. It's no biggie - I just wanted to make it as easy for people as possible Jason Carr said Also, it's important to note that the platform images can be named anything as long as they're in the right folders. Interesting. I didn't realize that. Jason Carr said In the future I'll solve this by adding support for image packs (and sound packs). I also hope to allow people to integrate the images into the custom themes. Oh, I definitely like the sound of that! Thanks for all your hard work as always!

@Jason I'm getting close to releasing the first set of platform clear logos so I'm getting the zip setup with existing Launchbox folder structure so that all you have to do is drag and drop in the base Launchbox folder and then merge the folders. One thing I noticed, however, is that most (maybe all?) of the default platform clear logos are incorrectly named with a .jpg file type when in reality they're actually .pngs. Beyond the fact that this is... well kinda weird... this presents a problem for quick installation of my pack because they're all .pngs; this means that it's not going to prompt people to overwrite the existing clear logo files, it's just going to put them in the same folder, and then people will have to go through and delete all the old ones. .jpg format doesn't have transparency support so anything that's named "blahblah.jpg" and has transparencies... you can be certain isn't, in fact, a .jpg. Any idea why this is how they're coming in by default through LB and if that can be corrected in the future? I have the feeling this won't even help existing users to be honest, because I don't think any change you would make would have any impact on the extension of people's existing files, but it would help for future users I suppose. My guess is people are just going to have to delete their old files when they install the pack, but I'm trying to cut down on the work required as much as possible. I guess it's also possible that my default image files are just older and this issue has since been corrected... I'm not sure.

Atrocious input lag? I think you might have some wrong settings or something... I haven't experienced that at all. In fairness, that's pretty easy to do considering the convoluted mess that is SSF's settings. You may want to post your version and settings here.

I really hope people like this one because it was a complete nightmare. Getting the colors just right was really difficult and time consuming. I think it turned out pretty well in the end though. Normal: Scanlines:

Awesome, thanks @Jason! I think I'm just going to finish up Sega Master System, Gameboy, and Windows for the first release. I'm sure there's other stuff people will need but that should cover a lot of ground. That'll put it at 26 platforms. EDIT: Speaking of which, here's one for Sega Master System. Admittedly, this image isn't from the SMS cover of Space Harrier, but the actual cover (like practically all SMS covers) is complete garbage so uh, yeah... we're not doing that. Normal: Scanlines:

Interesting. I'll have to check that out. I've just been too knee-deep in other stuff in LB/BB to mess around with anything new lately. I've been in the process of auditing all of my DOS stuff to add in screenshots, descriptions, and "fanart" (which typically just ends up being another screenshot) because the Games DB seems to be lacking in the DOS department. It's time consuming but it just looks so much better once it's all setup. Between that and working on those clear logos I haven't had time to play much lately haha.