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CriticalCid

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Everything posted by CriticalCid

  1. CriticalCid
    Awesome! Don’t feel rushed and take all the time you need. I also just tested the new version and can’t report any issues so far
  2. CriticalCid
    First of huge thanks for adding the SteamDB page to the scraper! I really appreciate that It works really well with games that are still up on the Steam Store. But unfortunately the Additional App doesn’t get added to games that aren’t available in the Steam Store anymore. I’m guessing your plugin is just passing the game when it doesn’t find the entry on Steam. It would be great if your plugin could add the SteamDB link anyway. Or even better, add a second source to get data for these removed games. The obvious choice would be to get them from the SteamDB but they offer no API and don’t allow web-scraping. I think a good alternative source would be SteamSpy as they offer an official API https://steamspy.com/api.php I’m very aware that adding another source would be a lot of extra work, so I completely understand if you don't want to touch this. If you need a removed game for testing in case you don't own any yourself: Deadpool (AppID: 224060) SteamDB Link SteamSpy Link
  3. CriticalCid
    I see. Change the value of the Panel.ZIndex from the <transitions:TransitionPresenter line under <!-- VIDEO --> from 0 to 1.
  4. CriticalCid
    Just add it under <!-- VIDEO --> and you should be fine.
  5. CriticalCid
    You didn’t, don’t worry. Thanks for the compliment
  6. CriticalCid
    I have a few ideas for a new theme that will be aimed for a HTPC / console-like interface but it will probably take quite a while before I start working on it. I can’t work on such creative things on command and I always need the right time and mood for it. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen very often to me so I can’t really tell when I come back. But I will definitely release a new theme sometimes in the future, that's for sure
  7. CriticalCid
    There isn’t anything coded for the background therefore it’s completely blank. The platform views are intended to play fullscreen platform videos so there wasn’t any need for that. Nevertheless you have quite a few options to add in backgrounds. If you want to use the backgrounds in your Fanart folders just add this line to the VIew <transitions:TransitionPresenter TransitionSelector="{Binding BackgroundTransitionSelector}" Content="{Binding BackgroundView}" Height="{Binding ElementName=Canvas, Path=ActualHeight}" Width="{Binding ElementName=Canvas, Path=ActualWidth}" Grid.ColumnSpan="8" Grid.RowSpan="8" IsContentVideo="false" /> If you want to add a static image use this code and edit the path to the image of your choice. The only thing you should know is that “pack://siteoforigin:,,,/” stands for your LaunchBox folder. <Image x:Name="BackgroundImage" Grid.ColumnSpan="8" Grid.RowSpan="8" Source="pack://siteoforigin:,,,/Themes/Unified/Images/Theme/Background/YOUR_IMAGE.jpg" Opacity="100" Panel.ZIndex="0" Stretch="Fill" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" /> And finally if you want to use the same background images as in the Games Views add this. Be aware that you'll need to manually add background images for your Platform Categories to the Background folder if you use any. <TextBlock x:Name="BackgroundFileName" Visibility="Collapsed"> <TextBlock.Text> <MultiBinding StringFormat="{}pack://siteoforigin:,,,/Themes/Unified/Images/Theme/Background/{0}.jpg"> <Binding Path="SelectedPlatform.Name" /> </MultiBinding> </TextBlock.Text> </TextBlock> <Image x:Name="BackgroundImage" Grid.ColumnSpan="8" Grid.RowSpan="8" Source="{Binding Text, ElementName=BackgroundFileName, FallbackValue='pack://siteoforigin:,,,/Themes/Unified/Images/Theme/Background/_Default.png'}" Opacity="100" Panel.ZIndex="0" Stretch="Fill" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" />
  8. CriticalCid
    Kondorito is completely right. I just want to add that when you completely delete the orange highlighted line the wheel won't fade away at all.
  9. CriticalCid
    I meant adding it as Additional App but that should be also fairly easy to add as well. I’m not sure if you aware of this but you can add basically anything as Additional App to a game which will then show up in the context menu when you right-click on it. You can add things like other games, manuals, links, etc. and open them with a single click. You just have to set it up as the application path. In the xml file it looks like this: <AdditionalApplication> <Id>126ec3a9-038c-4bc9-a3aa-1a4ce044f5a9</Id> <PlayCount>1</PlayCount> <GameID>21c077bd-da53-4981-8acb-a929a6b1a240</GameID> <ApplicationPath>https://steamdb.info/app/49520/</ApplicationPath> <AutoRunAfter>false</AutoRunAfter> <AutoRunBefore>false</AutoRunBefore> <CommandLine /> <Name>Visit Steam Database page</Name> <UseDosBox>false</UseDosBox> <UseEmulator>false</UseEmulator> <WaitForExit>false</WaitForExit> <Developer /> <Publisher /> <Region /> <Version /> <Status /> <LastPlayed>2019-06-16T22:32:02.2887597+02:00</LastPlayed> <SideA>false</SideA> <SideB>false</SideB> <Priority>0</Priority> </AdditionalApplication> And no worries, I can wait. Take the time you need
  10. CriticalCid
    That’s weird. The plugin is still working completely fine for me in 9.9. All tags are getting added just fine, I just tested it with a couple of newly added games. Because it was addressed earlier in this thread: When you use the scraper you won’t see the changes immediately, you have to select a different game first and/or reload the image cache for the particular games to see the new metadata and media. On another note, it looks like that Steam itself will feature Box - Front covers, Banner/Marquees and Clear Logos for all games very soon. I’m really excited about that because it will fill a lot of artwork gaps and make our Steam collections finally Big Box ready. It’s definitely something to keep an eye on https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks#announcements/detail/1597002662762032240 And finally I have a request for you @srxz. Would it be possible to add a link to the corresponding SteamDB pages as additional app? I have a lot of Steam games that were removed from the Steam store and therefore your plugin can’t find anything for them. Having an easy way to go to SteamDB would help me a lot to fill them in manually. Also is SteamDB a great source for in-depth info’s for all Steam games and features links to the respective Steam store page, community hub or PCGamingWiki article. So it would be quite handy in a lot of cases. The SteamDB URL’s are very straight forward: https://steamdb.info/app/GAME_ID/
  11. CriticalCid
    Whoah, these look great! Care to share?
  12. CriticalCid
    Open the View you want to edit with a text editor of your choice (Notepad, Notepad++, etc) and search for the Background code block. It should look something like this: <!-- BACKGROUND --> <TextBlock x:Name="BackgroundFileName" Visibility="Collapsed"> <TextBlock.Text> <MultiBinding StringFormat="{}pack://siteoforigin:,,,/Themes/Unified/Images/Theme/Background/{0}.jpg"> <Binding Path="KnownPlatformOrPlaylistTitle" /> </MultiBinding> </TextBlock.Text> </TextBlock> <Image x:Name="BackgroundImage" Grid.ColumnSpan="8" Grid.RowSpan="8" Source="{Binding Text, ElementName=BackgroundFileName, FallbackValue='pack://siteoforigin:,,,/Themes/Unified/Images/Theme/Background/_Default.png'}" Opacity="100" Panel.ZIndex="0" Stretch="Fill" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" /> Replace this code block with the following code: <!-- BACKGROUND --> <transitions:TransitionPresenter TransitionSelector="{Binding BackgroundTransitionSelector}" Content="{Binding BackgroundView}" Height="{Binding ElementName=Canvas, Path=ActualHeight}" Width="{Binding ElementName=Canvas, Path=ActualWidth}" IsContentVideo="false" Grid.ColumnSpan="8" Grid.RowSpan="8" Panel.ZIndex="0"/>
  13. CriticalCid
    Hey Damned, great to see you here There are multiple reasons why Unified relies on platform videos. The main reason is that I did the Unified platform videos a long time before I even started with the Big Box theme so there was not much need to completely re-create them in the Big Box theming engine, which would have taken me countless of extra hours to get everything right. If you have a list with updated system videos I could update the Unified videos with them as well. As for your original question. The more games you have in your library the longer your start up times will be. 25 seconds for 54k games sounds pretty normal to me. The main difference between HyperSpin and Big Box is that HyperSpin only loads one XML at a time, so when you start HS it only loads the MainMenu.xml and when you enter a system it loads the XML file of this system. Big Box on the other hand loads/caches everything at startup to provide cross-platform filters, searches, playlists or simple things like displaying the games count of a platform in the platform views.
  14. CriticalCid
    I honestly can't remember if I have changed that as well. Open the affected View(s) and change the value of the Panel.ZIndex of the video border element from 5 to 1.
  15. CriticalCid
    Yes, there was a new property added for this: StretchVideo="true"
  16. CriticalCid
    I must admit that I’m still a little skeptical about a theme creator tool for Big Box but this does look really interesting. It definitely looks like a good balance of easy to use while being powerful enough to not restrict creativity. Great job! I’m just torn apart of what the existence of such a tool implies. The download section will probably be flooded with a giant wave of themes of questionable quality while the really good ones will be harder to find and don’t get the attention they’ll probably deserve. But on the other hand your tool will allow the creation of awesome themes that otherwise would have not seen the light of day. Depending how much the upcoming theme downloader inside Big Box will be curated this might be a non-issue anyway, so I’m guessing I’ll just wait and see what the community will do with it. This is definitely not criticism about your tool itself, I still think it looks really promising. I will most likely stay to directly code my themes with my beloved Notepad++ but I’m surely will take your tool for a ride once it has been released. What I’ve noticed is that the code of the View that you’ve shown was kinda large considering the number of elements used in this View. So I’m curious how the themes which will be created with this tool will perform on lower end systems. Another thing to note. I saw that your tool included the HelperControl plugin when you created the actual theme. Its features are now natively integrated into Big Box itself and therefor you don’t need it anymore. It would probably be better to also remove/replace it in your theme designer going forward
  17. CriticalCid
    I live nearby Stuttgart, Germany
  18. CriticalCid
  19. CriticalCid
    Aeon MQ7 v0.3 released! The new version requires LaunchBox v9.4 or higher! This update is mainly focused on fixing/improving things for the new theming changes that came with LB v9.4 I want to say that I have not forgotten about this theme but I don’t know when I will come back to it and finish it. Sorry to everybody who is waiting for new big updates. Changelog: v0.3 - 02.13.2019 - requires LB v9.4 or higher - Removed: The weather plugin by @Grila was removed as it's being broken at the moment. It will get re-added once it has been fixed. - Removed: The HelperControl plugin was removed as its functions are now integrated in Big Box itself - Fixed: The games count in the Platform Views now handles smaller and bigger numbers better - Updated: The theme was updated and tested for the new theming engine changes in LB v9.4 - Updated: The community rating is now rounded up to two decimal places
  20. CriticalCid
    No, they aren't the same and not all changes by Jason were incorporated. Especially his crazy fast disc spinning will never find a way into my version because I just don't like that at all (sorry Jason ) The wheel is definitely rounder now and looks much better than before.
  21. CriticalCid
    Only the backgrounds were converted to JPEG, all the other artwork is sill using PNG (and this won't change as JPEG doesn't support transparency which is mandotory for them) Unfortunately the theme doesn't support various file types, so you have to convert all your backgrounds to JPEG. I know that a big change like this is annyoing but I could reduce the size of the theme by 2/3, so I'm certain that's a win in the long run,.
  22. CriticalCid
    Unified 1.2 released! The new version requires LaunchBox v9.4 or higher! Please check the Changelog for everything that has changed. This update is mainly focused on fixing/improving things. Originally, I planned to only release a new version of Unified when I have something big to show like new Views. But due to all technical changes that happened in the past half year to LB I had to release this smaller update now to make sure that everything works fine going forward. I’m also sorry to let you guys hanging for so long but the two big projects I did last year (initial Unified release & recording over 1000 new HyperSpin MAME themes) + my new daily job drained me so much that I had absolutely no motivation to work on any projects or being very active in the forums. The good news is that working in this update got me excited about theming again. Of course I won’t promise anything. I took a lot of inspiration from the Unified versions/modifactions that @Jason Carr, @RetroHumanoid and @bmonomad did. I want to thank them big time for their work! Especially RetroHumanoid took the Unified concept with Refried to a whole new level and made it his own! Also a huge shoutout to @dragon57 for creating the new Unified logo. Sorry that it took me so long to actually add it to the theme. Changelog: v1.2 - 02.13.2019 - requires LB v9.4 or higher - General: The Add-on package was merged with the main theme. All media is now included in a single package - Removed: The weather plugin by @Grila was removed as it's being broken at the moment - Removed: The HelperControl plugin was removed as its functions are now integrated in Big Box itself - Updated: The theme was updated and tested for the new theming engine changes in LB v9.4 - Updated: All backgrounds were converted to maximum-quality JPEGs; reducing their size drastically (thanks @JasonCarr for the tip) If you have added and/or renamed some background images before you have to convert them to JPEG as well! Sorry for the inconvinience - Updated: Some backgrounds were replaced with new ones (the old ones were moved to the "Alt" folder) (thanks @RetroHumanoid) - Updated: The TextList Games View now uses the normal Game Boxes element, which means that you can now switch there between the Image Types (and probably have to if you want to use 3D Boxes) -Fixed: Due to the above change does the "Flip Box" function now work again in the Games Details screen if you have "2D Boxes" selected as your current Image Type - Updated: The Main Menu and Option Views now feature custom artwork + there is finally a logo for the theme (in the style of the HyperSpin logo). Thanks @dragon57 - Updated: The size and position of the wheel was changed a bit. It's now farther away from the pointer and therefore it's not overlapping it all the time. Also it fades away more smothly now. - Updated: All Clear Logos, Boxart, Carts and Discs now have a slight Drop Shadow (thanks @Jason Carr) - Updated: The sizes of the Box and Cart/Disc Art were slightly changed throughout all Views - Fixed: Top bar modified to prevent triangle corner overlap issues (thanks @JasonCarr) - Fixed: The TextList list is now over the Platform/Playlist logo and doesn't get covered from very wide logos anymore. - Fixed: The Cart and Disc art now appear in higher quality - Fixed: The theme didn’t show the proper artwork for playlists in some cases - Added: A bunch of new icons were added/replaced (thanks @ bmonomad) - Replaced the icon for favorite games - New icon for completed games - The rating was replaced with star icons - Added: Logos and backgrounds for 3 new playlists were added. (thanks @RetroHumanoid) - Ball & Paddle Games - Maze Games - Multigame
  23. CriticalCid
    CriticalZone v2.3 released! This update is mainly focused on fixing/improving things for the new theming changes that come with LB v9.4 Unfortunately, I had to scrap the background video plugin as it wasn’t compatible with LB v9.4 anymore. You can now only set up a single background video throughout the whole theme. Sorry for the inconvenience. The Default version that is bundled with LaunchBox will get updated automatically but if you use one of the versions from the download section make sure to update them now as they won’t work under LB v9.4 anymore! I also updated my two other themes “Aeon MQ7” and “Unified”. They will get released once the stable version of LB v9.4 comes out as they will require it but the CriticalZone update should work fine with any previous LB versions. Changelog:
  24. CriticalCid
    Go to your Big Box options -> Game Details -> make sure you don’t have „Game Notes” unchecked
  25. CriticalCid
    That's weird, it works just fine for me. Does the description work in Horizontal 1 for you? Both Views are almost identical just with a different wheel size. The logo has to be dynamic in order to work with playlists which contain games from different systems. You are probably referring to a screenshot which shows the old 1.8 version. If you prefer that Just take the "HorizontalWheel3GamesView.xaml" file from the "Views" folder of 1.8 and replace the one in your V2 version with it
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