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Ok so I figured out how to quit the emulator without using the special script within LaunchBox. I edited line 253 in the setting.bml file within the ares folder to the following text "QuitEmulator: 0x1/0/0;;" That fixed my problem, I can press Esc now and it closes the emulator properly. My only other question with this emulator is when I launch a game through LaunchBox, this window pops up for approximately 5 seconds before the game loads into full screen. Is there a way to suppress this window from popping up or have it automatically minimize so it's not seen before the game loads? Thanks for anyone that's able to help.

As far as I can tell, the emulator doesn't recognize "Esc" as a way to exit a game so I added this to the running script section $Esc:: WinClose, ahk_exe {{{StartupEXE}}} The Esc button now works perfectly and closes the emulator however if I want the game to automatically start in full screen I have to add "--fullscreen" to the Default Command-Line Parameters section of LaunchBox so the Sample Command now reads ares.exe --fullscreen "FULL\PATH\TO\ROM\FILE" For some reason, after I added the full screen parameter, it now causes two instances of the ares emulator to populate. If I press the ESC key, it will close out of one instance and then the 2nd one freezes causing me to have to have to access task manager to close out. Does anyone know of a different way to make ares start in full screen so it doesn't cause a second instance of the emulator to generate?

I got all my RetroArch consoles up and running with my favorite shader which is from Sonkun's shader pack. If you're not familiar with this shader pack feel free to check out these brief videos here & here This shader works great for all RetroArch consoles but for any stand alone emulator I've tried using Reshade. I haven't found a good shader within Reshade. All the ones I've found for Reshade either make the image to dark or don't properly display the dithering effect used in some games (look at the grey bottom area of the attached images below Bowser, Peach, and Yoshi). Does anyone have any suggestions on Reshade shaders that can produce a similar result to Sonkun's shaders from RetroArch or does anyone know how to port RetroArch shaders into Reshade? Lastly, not sure if this will be needed by I'm using a 1080p monitor and the specific shader I use in Sonkun's pack is Sonkun -> Scalefx-Presets -> Slot-Mask -> Flat-Screen -> 1080p -> 03-crt-guest-advanced-hd-slot-mask-neutral-rf-ntsc-3-phase.slangp

Is that something I can fix on my end within LaunchBox settings or would the solution be to manually create m3u files for that core?

System - Sega CD RetroArch Core - Genesis Plus GX Sega CD Game Format - CHD LaunchBox Additional Apps Setting - metadata section shows each disc is labeled as 1 & 2 LaunchBox Manage Emulator - Sega CD / Genesis Plus GX has the "Use M3U Playlists for Multiple Discs" option enable If I attempt to launch a multi-disc game (Prize Fighter or Dracula Unleashed) nothing happens at all i.e. RetroArch doesn't appear If I attempt to launch a single disc game, it works without issue, RetroArch launches like normal and the games plays like it should. If I attempt to load one of the multi-disc games into RetroArch directly (not through LaunchBox) the games will load successful. Multi-disc games do work with other systems through LaunchBox e.g. Sega Saturn using the Mednafen core. Looking at the RetroArch documentation, it looks like Genesis Plus GX supports M3U files and CHD files. Can anyone tell me what I might be doing wrong or double check to see if they can launch multi-disc Sega CD games with the Genesis Plus GX core.

You are awesome! That fixed the issue. Thank you!

When I load RetroArch standalone I set a content directory override for the Sega Genesis to use a specific Shader and Filter. It works perfectly for all Sega Genesis games that I load directly from RetroArch even after closing and reopening RetroArch. When I load a Sega Genesis game from within Launchbox the shader and filter are not applied. I can manually apply shaders and filters after launching a game through RetroArch in Launchbox then save it as a content directory override but it doesn't actually save because every time I reload a game from Launchbox, the shader and filter are not applied. Do I need to do something special within the RetroArch commandlines within launchbox to make it load the shaders and filters?

Thank you for the quick response and for the suggestion. The pdf is not as good as the chm file because the chm file includes animations for example the first page and the characters page. Also the pdf cuts a few things out (see included screenshot) #6 is missing which is the L button.

For Star Fox 2 on the SNES, Nintendo created a website that serves as the games manual. I saved the website as a chm file so it can be viewed offline. I'd like the file to show up in the "Media -> Additional Docs" section but when I add the chm file as an additional app it will show up under "Additional Apps -> chm file". I tried creating a bat file to launch the chm but the bat file also shows up under "Additional Apps -> bat file". Is there a way to choose where the file shows up i.e. "Media -> Additional Docs" instead of "Additional Apps"? Star Fox 2 (Official Manual).chm

Thank you for explaining that. I appreciate it.

In my Launchbox set up, I have translated games in their own separate platform e.g. WonderSwan [T-En] When I click on the main WonderSwan platform, the one that contains the regular WonderSwan games + the WonderSwan [T-En] games, Launchbox will display all games from both of those platforms. Is that game list, the WonderSwan games + the translated ones, something I can access in BigBox? I can see each of the platforms in BigBox (WonderSwan & WonderSwan [T-En]) but I can only access them individually. I also tried using the "View Platforms Categories" option in BigBox which allows me to see the various layers of platforms I have set up (HandHelds > Bandai > WonderSwan > WonderSwan OR WonderSwan [T-En]) but the only way to see the games is to drill all the way down to either WonderSwan or WonderSwan [T-En] I can't figure out who to make BigBox display games from both platforms like it does in Launchbox. Any help would be appreciated.

Wow, that was fast. Thank you for adding support for that so quickly. I really appreciate it! One more quick question. If I'm understanding your documentation correctly, for dats that have a regular dat and a parent clone dat, it doesn't really matter which one I use. I'll get the same result as long as I'm using the same settings within the retool program, right?

Hello @unexpectedpanda Thank you for creating the retool program. I tried to use if for the first time but I must be doing something wrong. Can you take a look and let me know what I'm doing wrong? I attached the original SNES no-intro dat I used and the dat the retool created. I left all the options set to their default values but I'm seeing a lot of duplicate games e.g. Alien vs Predator (USA) Aliens vs. Predator (Japan) Blackthorne (USA) Blackthorne (USA) (Beta) (CES) BlaZeon - The Bio-Cyborg Challenge (USA) BlaZeon (Japan) (En) Bubsy in - Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind (USA) Bubsy in - Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind (World) (Bubsy Two-Fur) (Unl) Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind (USA) (Beta 2) Bugs Bunny - Rabbit Rampage (USA) Bugs Bunny - Hachamecha Daibouken (Japan) Cacoma Knight (Japan) Cacoma Knight in Bizyland (USA) Choplifter III (Europe) Choplifter III - Rescue-Survive (USA) Nintendo - Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Private) (20230422-094423).dat Nintendo - Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Private) (20230422-094423) (Retool 2023-04-29 15-54-56) (2,428) [-k].dat

Thanks for uploading the templates. You're work is always awesome!

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. I watched Jason's tutorial vidoes which helped me get an understanding of the basics but it seems there is still a lot I need to learn. Does anyone have any recommendations on a video tutorial series or a website with a lot of information on xaml coding that would be useful for creating a theme?

Is this what you are looking for?

Sorry for the late response but thank you for replying! That solved my issue with the version number I was able to move it up Any idea on how to get the options menu (OptionsView.xaml) to show a transparent background instead of a black solid layer so I can still see the picture while adjusting menu options?

I included a screenshot to help explain what I mean. "Licensed to Thomas Smith | Version 8.1" is overlapping the text in the bottom right corner, How would I adjust the text to move it up and slightly to the right?

When you go tot he options menu and select anything other than "BACK" the right side of the screen will have a black layer behind the text to make it more visible. Is there any way to change the opacity of the black layer to zero to make it transparent? I was looking through the optionsview.xaml file but I couldn't find the option to alter it. Also, in the systemview.xaml file is there anyway to move or shrink the text "Licensed to XXXXX | Verion X.X"

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll upload it to the theme section in a couple of weeks. i want to try and tweak the game list view as well first

I'm glad to see you getting back in to the swing of things. The alt dreamcast image looks great by the way I love this theme but I also liked your blade runner theme as well so I tried to incorporate aspects of it into this theme. I don't know a lot about coding themes so I had to do a lot of guess work. I deleted the date at the top and the description at the bottom. I added scan lines to the video and I centered the platform banner at the bottom. I also added the icons from the blade runner theme at the bottom as well. I'm happy with how it turned out. By the way, I read on the forums that bigbox supports animated gif files. Would there be any performance benefit to changing the background from a video to an animated gif. Again, I don't know a lot about coding so I wasn't sure if it would be worth the hassle or trying to figure out how to swap the video for an animated gif. Thanks again for all your hard work!

Lol I should have looked at the title of the video. Thanks for clarifying. That theme seems pretty nice too, I'll have to check it out.

Thanks for uploading the new version of your theme! I deleted my old CityHunter 2 folder and downloaded the CityHunter 2 (theme) Standard Version and placed it in my themes folder along with updating my clear logos and banners. For some reason everything looks the same even after refreshing my images. I attached a screen shot to show you what I mean. How would I get my BigBox to look like the one in your video where you're using banners and all the extra stuff on the screen is gone.

No problem I understand. I have two young children and when they get sick the whole house gets deathly ill. I hope you start feeling better soon! PS thanks for the update video it's looks good!

Since I love this theme and the banners that keltoigael made I attempted to make a few banners of my own to fill in the gaps that keltoigael hasn't had a chance to make yet. I know they're not perfect, but I tried to emulate the original banners as closely as I could. I figured I would share these in case anyone else wanted to use them until keltoigael makes replacement banners. I hope you like them