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CriticalCid

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Everything posted by CriticalCid

  1. CriticalCid
    When I create a new view I will always consider first what kind of elements I will need. Then I estimate how much space each element will probably take. Based on that I define all Grids and Rows. For example: Based on your mockup you will need 5 elements. 1. The time/weather 2. The platform video 3. The system info 4. The wheel 5. The scrolling description Because you also want some space between all elements you will need something as distance pieces. You could use the margin property for that or add additional rows/columns between your elements. I personally prefer additional rows/columns but everybody to his own. In your case it could look something like this: <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition Height="4*" /> <!--TIME--> <RowDefinition Height="6*" /> <!--SPACER--> <RowDefinition Height="20*" /> <!--VIDEO--> <RowDefinition Height="2*" /> <!--SPACER--> <RowDefinition Height="36*" /> <!--SYSTEMINFO--> <RowDefinition Height="2*" /> <!--SPACER--> <RowDefinition Height="11*" /> <!--VIDEO--> <RowDefinition Height="4*" /> <!--SYSTEMDESCRIPTION--> <RowDefinition Height="15*" /> <!--SPACER--> </Grid.RowDefinitions> I personally like to do this manually because it’s easier for me to divide exactly 100% over all elements. This way it’s easier to imagine how everything will turn out or you can calculate exactly how much percent a certain element will need. Adding and resizing these with the Visual Studio GUI will just lead to a bunch of cryptic numbers and it’s extremely hard to tell directly in the code how much space a certain row/column will probably take. Of course you could also use fix pixel values instead of percentages but that will limit your view to a certain desktop resolution. So if you want to add the video than you can simply add it to the Row that you have created for it. <transitions:TransitionPresenter Grid.Row="2" TransitionSelector="{Binding ImageVideoTransitionSelector}" Content="{Binding ImageVideoView}" IsContentVideo="true" /> Just keep in mind that the numeration of Grids and Rows always start at 0. So the row for the video may be the third row in your view but it’s number is actually 2. And if the size of your video isn't right than you just have to change the height of your row.
  2. CriticalCid
    I personally use a main grid and organize the complete structure of the view with Columns and Rows in this one. It's way easier than just adding a bunch of grids and try to get them in to the right position with Alignment and Margin properties.
  3. CriticalCid
    You could also try to set the stretch property for the image. It's Stretch="value" Values: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.media.stretch(v=vs.110).aspx
  4. CriticalCid
    You’ve set the width of your canvas to just 1910 and the height to 104. But your image is set to 1920x120. You’ve tried to compensate that with the Margin property but it doesn’t seem to work. I assume that the image tries to keep its aspect ratio and because it hasn’t enough space it doesn’t fill the whole screen. Maybe you could try to set the Horizontal Alignment to Stretch, give the image the size it needs or resize the image itself. I’m also surprised that BigBox didn’t give you an error message because you have assigned your wheel to Row 1 but you haven’t defined any Rows in your view yet.
  5. CriticalCid
    You want to completely restructure the main menu elements. In this case it’s indeed better to just delete everything and start from scratch because you have to set all columns and rows completely new. To answer one of your questions above, yes you can set individual background images for all platforms. Just put an image of your choice into ".\LaunchBox\Images\Platforms\"Platform Name"\Fanart". If you want to use this mechanic in your theme than you can leave the default background code in there. So I would advise to just delete everything between </Grid.Background> and the last </Grid> line It’s also no coincidence that my horizontal platform wheel view looks similar to what you have in your mind. Aeon Nox was a huge inspiration for this particular view
  6. CriticalCid
    I’m no designer and have zero Photoshop skills. So all of my theme elements (except the background video) were made entirely with code.
  7. CriticalCid
    The user @Antropus made a program called "Lightspeed" which makes that very easy. It adds the MAME driver info (which are basically emulation cores for the different arcade hardware types like Capcom Play System, Neo Geo, etc) for each game. But unfortunately his tool doesn’t work with the latest LB versions anymore. He is working on a new version of his program which will work with the current LB releases but he seems to be very busy at the moment. So unfortunately you have to wait until he releases the updated version of it. You can find his thread here:
  8. CriticalCid
    I’m not sure, but I highly doubt that there’s currently a way to customize the image types for the image switching feature. I know you can switch to the back when you are in the game details screen but that’s a separate function which you can’t use for the normal games views, unfortunately. Maybe @Jason Carr could add support for it in the future, but right now it isn't possible.
  9. CriticalCid
    The best way to get started with XAML is probably the Tutorial series from Jason himself: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6pTDaHeAz-X8yNgOD3DPxUf1gaB2FLzb There’s also a documentation.pdf file in the “Themes” folder of your LaunchBox installation which features most of the LaunchBox specific XAML elements. The XAML Tips and Tricks thread is also quite useful: http://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/28698-xaml-tips-and-tricks/ And last but not least can you grab some themes in the download section and look into their XAML codes to learn how they have achieved the things you want to use yourself. I also advice to always use the default theme as base for your own themes because it's the most clean and stable theme to build on.
  10. CriticalCid
    You can set a default background image for all games in a platform which gets used when there’s no image for a particular game. Just put your background image in: LaunchBox\Images\Platforms\"Platform Name"\Fanart If you still want to use the animated background for these views than you can change it manually in the XAML files in the "Views" folder of my theme. The file for the view in your screenshot is called "WheelGamesView.xaml" Just replace this line(it's one of the first lines in the file): <transitions:TransitionPresenter TransitionSelector="{Binding BackgroundTransitionSelector}" Content="{Binding BackgroundView}" Height="{Binding ElementName=Canvas, Path=ActualHeight}" Width="{Binding ElementName=Canvas, Path=ActualWidth}" IsContentVideo="true" /> With this: <Grid> <MediaElement Name="BackgroundVideo" Height="{Binding ElementName=Canvas, Path=ActualHeight}" Width="{Binding ElementName=Canvas, Path=ActualWidth}" Stretch="Fill"> <MediaElement.Triggers> <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="MediaElement.Loaded"> <EventTrigger.Actions> <BeginStoryboard> <Storyboard> <MediaTimeline Source="pack://siteoforigin:,,,/Themes/CriticalZone(v1.3)/Videos/BackgroundVideo/Background.mp4" Storyboard.TargetName="BackgroundVideo" RepeatBehavior="Forever"/> </Storyboard> </BeginStoryboard> </EventTrigger.Actions> </EventTrigger> </MediaElement.Triggers> </MediaElement> </Grid>
  11. CriticalCid
    I haven’t made one because my workflow for doing this in batch involves a lot steps for setting everything up properly and different programs for recording/edit/encoding. But if you wanna tackle console games than I’ll be more than happy to write something up and share my scripts with you. It could probably take a few days until it’s finished, so stay tuned
  12. CriticalCid
    In your first screenshot there shouldn't play any background video at all, that's one of the views which are using just your nromal background image settings. But the second should have it. Have you renamed the theme folder? It only works if you leave the name as it is.
  13. CriticalCid
    Only views which were designed to use platform or game theme videos are using the animated background. All other views like the GamesListView are using normal images based on your background priorities settings. If you don’t want the Logos to show up in the background open LaunchBox (not BigBox!) and go to Tools -> Images -> Background Priorities and change it to your likings.
  14. CriticalCid
    I have wrote a list for all the source material I would need to do a theme. You can find it in the first post here: I'm absolutely no designer nor I have any Photoshop skills. The only thing I can do is to merge it all together in a video. So I'm kinda depending on your submissions.
  15. CriticalCid
    That’s weird. I honestly don’t know how that could happen as this video also uses an older theme which I don’t even have anymore. Nevertheless, I have re-recorded it and it should be replaced in the LB downloader very soon. If you don’t want to wait than you can already grab it on the EmuMovies FTP, it’s called “punchout.mp4”. Just replace your old one with it. Here you can find further info's about the FTP:
  16. CriticalCid
    Hi @Maddoc1007, you see that wrong because it was the other way around. You could only use 2D Boxes for the CoverFlow element in these views in Beta-15 because CoverFlow ignored any other image type you have set in the properties. You now can/have to set the CoverFlow to any image type you want. If you want 2D boxes you have to change the image type to ImageType="Boxes"
  17. CriticalCid
    Microsoft Paint doesn't support any transparency and will always turn any transparent background into a white one. Like some users already suggested you'll have to use another tool like Paint.NET, Gimp or Photoshop for it. Also make sure to always save/export your images as .PNG files because .JPEG doesn't support transparency either.
  18. CriticalCid
    Well, I already did a request for you, so you know what kind of media you have to provide me in order to do a request like this I will gladly do any requests but without your ideas and source material i won't be able to do any video themes for you.
  19. CriticalCid
    Select all your games with Ctrl + A, right-click on any of the selected games and choose edit. Select “Emulator” in the mass edit dialog and leave the value blank. That should do the trick
  20. CriticalCid
    For everyone who hasn't seen this announcement yet, there are now 1080p versions of the recorded HS themes available on the EmuMovies FTP!
  21. CriticalCid
    To be honest with you, I’m not a huge fan of HS themes for Consoles, Computer and Handhelds because I like it more when these platforms look tidy and clean. But you’re not the only person who’s asking for this, so I’ll probably do them as well. But don’t expect anything in that regard before 2017.
  22. CriticalCid
    Currently there are only HyperSpin Theme Videos for Arcade and Touhou Project games. I did over 2200 videos for them, so almost all HS themes that are available for these platforms should be covered. To be honest with you, I’m not a huge fan of HS themes for Consoles, Computer and Handhelds because I like it more when these platforms look tidy and clean. But you’re not the only person who’s asking for this, so I’ll probably do them as well. But don’t expect anything in that regard before 2017.
  23. CriticalCid
    More information about ""
    Yes, this view is indeed planned. But unfortunately is there currently a bug in the Big Box theming engine which causes that videos aren’t aligned properly. I can work around this when I make the position of the video fix like I did it for the platform view, but this also means to be locked to a specific aspect ratio for the videos. That’s not an issue for the platforms as I have specifically designed it to be used with 16:9 platform theme videos but for games you will run in to all kinds of different aspect ratios, especially if you have such a huge PC Game collection as I do. TL;DR: It’s coming, but @Jason Carr has to fix a bug in the theming engine first before I’ll be able to do it.
  24. CriticalCid
    In LaunchBox: Views - > Auto-Play Music (you can find it in the last third of the dropdown list) - Alternative: Ctrl + U In BigBox: Options -> Sound -> Here you can find all kind of different options which deal with Background music
  25. CriticalCid
    UPDATE (04/16/2017): The 1080p versions are now available everywhere! All information's in this thread, except the part about the bonus videos on the FTP, are outdated! Bonus videos on the FTP: There’s even more on the FTP than just the 1080p versions of the videos! I have made a couple of Alternative Themes for MAME games which are basically leftovers when I’ve found better looking themes. I didn’t just want to delete the old ones that I already did so I just put them into a different folder. Maybe you can find one or two themes which you think are looking better than my final choices for the main set. Also there’s a folder which features video themes for Mature MAME games or some 'sexy' alternatives for games which are already covered in the main MAME set. Both of these video sets will always stay exclusive to the FTP for obvious reasons. The following part is outdated: With this thread I want to inform you guys that there are existing 2 different versions of my newly added Game Theme Videos (recorded HyperSpin themes) and tell you about the differences. Differences: Version 1 is currently only available on the EmuMovies FTP. They are my “Master” videos which were encoded in almost lossless quality out of my original recording files. They are in 1080p (1440x1080) resolution and are less blurry compared to Version 2. You’ll mostly notice the difference on text or sharp edges. Version 2 is directly available through LaunchBox and on the EmuMovies website for free users as well. These videos were scaled down to the native HyperSpin resolution (1024x768). They are around 40% smaller in size compared to Version 1, fitting so better to most internet bandwidths and don’t take away too much disc space. Why is Version1 only available on the EmuMovies FTP? There are bunch of reasons why we did this. For one we have decided that the smaller file size is for the most users more important than the slightly better quality and some users won’t notice any quality differences for the most themes at all. The main reason is that LaunchBox has currently some technical limits in its download manager. It doesn’t support multi-threaded downloads which will cause that the download process for over 2200 videos in 1080p could take up to 24 hours. But that’s something that will be fixed by @Jason Carr in the near future. So when multi-threaded downloads in LaunchBox are coming we will add downloads for the 1080p versions directly in LB as well. How to get the Version 1 videos: You can find all the videos that I did in their original 1080p version on the EmuMovies FTP under: /Upload Here/CriticalCid To get access to the FTP you have to be a premium member over at EmuMovies. Details for the login are here: http://emumovies.com/ftpdetails/
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