SNAK3ATER
-
Posts
180 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
4
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Articles
Downloads
Gallery
Blogs
Posts posted by SNAK3ATER
-
-
5 minutes ago, Klopjero said:
I have a day off tomorrow and so I can get some stuff done..
Logo placement.. I'd tend to place them on the same height...which looks nice.. ..where do these banners popup in your theme ?The appear on all the platform views as well as Text games view:
-
8 minutes ago, Klopjero said:
@SNAK3ATER
here some samples.. tell me what you think.. do the logo's need to be bigger/ smaller ? more margins on the bottem or the sides ?
Love it! They look very Neflix-ish if you get what I mean which is perfect
Logo placement can be varied depending on the artwork used and platform's clear logo; if you noticed my samples above the clear logo placement is different on the PS2, Gameboy and Wii so i'd say you're on the right track just keep doing what you do best Klopjero!
If there is any nitpick i'd say make sure the artwork used does not have any watermarks on it and try creating two variations (With Bigflix logo and no logo) of the same platform banner whenever possible. Looking forward to the rest of your work and i'm happy to tell you that Bigflix 1.1 is 99% completed and might release it this weekend if everything goes according to the plan.
I'll post a video later to showcase the theme but I just need to beta test it to make sure no bugs or other anomalies are introduced in the updated theme and offcourse your banners to bundle it for the complete package
-
1 minute ago, shinra358 said:
To be honest, most of these are kinda lazy. For the older systems, they mostly are cutoffs from the game boxes. Itll be better for the community to participate and make good ones for the website. Thats whats taking me so long to release my theme, im literally making every banner and bg myself.
Having a viewable banner is better than having no banner at all Shinra, Originally my Bigflix theme was supposed to have steam banner support in one of the views but I scrapped the idea since there isn't enough contents for other platforms to warrant a banners view.
While I agree with you that there are lazy submissions on that website atleast it's a good start and we can gradually build our database from there.
-
1
-
-
31 minutes ago, CriticalCid said:
Nice find Cid! This site has lots of steam banners for retro platforms and it has an API for searching too. Can this be added to future beta updates jason?
-
33 minutes ago, Klopjero said:
I volunteer.
Leave that to me. I'll throw something together this evening.
Thanks bro much appreciated!
10 hours ago, SNAK3ATER said:Alright here's a quick update on the progress of Bigflix 1.1 Alternate version:
Updated Views with correct platform/game snap aspect ratios - Complete
Removed the buffering animations and speed up the transitions - Complete
Added a new Wall View with Bigflix features - Complete
Edited the Boxart view to be compatible with odd boxed platforms like PSX (no overlapping boxarts) - Complete
Applied polish and nifty little details in every existing views - Complete
Work in progress:
Platform banners for Bigflix (would love to have someone on board to help me finish this)
Exploring adding new features such as community star ratings
I experimented with community stars ratings in one of the views and I realized I can only use either user star rating or community ratings but not both aesthetic wise:
Original view with user star rating
Modified view with community ratings
The community ratings are rounded up to an integer like 4.3 and then converted to a percentage to stay true to the source: (Netflix dropped the star system and opted for a thumbs and matching system instead in late 2017)
What do you think of the community rating for Bigflix do you prefer it over the old user star rating? please let me know in the comments below!
I would like to get your feedback on the community ratings implementation in Bigflix, now I know there are many people including me who doesn't like Netflix's new Matching system but after giving it a thought it does make sense for Bigbox; basically a game with let's say 92% match means the average people who rated this game are in favor of this game similar to how metacritic system works for game reviews.
The only drawback is due to space limitations I can only implement either user star rating or community ratings but not both... there is a workaround but unfortunately after researching I still can't figure out how to coding wise; the idea is to place both the user and community rating on the same space and having them alternate between each other on repeat kinda similar to Grila's wheelfaded code but instead of user rating swapping with community rating only once after a set amount of time they instead keep alternating indefinitely.
Perhaps @CriticalCid and @eatkinola can shed some light on how to achieve that?
-
7 hours ago, Klopjero said:
I will help with platform banners. at Hyperspin I used to do Wheels and Themes...
Currently I use Nosh's banners as a base and created my own banners for playlists.
do you have a certain style in mind ? do you have an exmple I can work with ? Here are a few samples I did. @SNAK3ATER
Wow those are nice Klopjero! In Bigflix 1.0 I used Nosh's banners to showcase my themes and recommended people to use his banners with my theme, but moving forward with Bigflix 1.1 I would like to create new banners that suits the style of this theme.
The banners will have two variations (one with Bigflix logo and other without the logo, see examples below):
The banners are slightly different than Nosh's as they are 920 x 430 which is similar to steam grids dimensions. Here are a couple of samples I created below to get a general feel of the look and style i'm going with the banners:
I'll admit tho graphic designing is not my strongest suit as I have amateur skills in photoshop and while some experienced designers literally take few minutes to design a single banner it takes me up to an hour sometimes to design 3 banners as most of the time is wasted on fiddling with photoshop tools... I t would be much better if someone can assist me in the design part while I focus on theme coding to expedite the process and finish the project faster.
-
2
-
-
Alright here's a quick update on the progress of Bigflix 1.1 Alternate version:
Updated Views with correct platform/game snap aspect ratios - Complete
Removed the buffering animations and speed up the transitions - Complete
Added a new Wall View with Bigflix features - Complete
Edited the Boxart view to be compatible with odd boxed platforms like PSX (no overlapping boxarts) - Complete
Applied polish and nifty little details in every existing views - Complete
Work in progress:
Platform banners for Bigflix (would love to have someone on board to help me finish this)
Exploring adding new features such as community star ratings
I experimented with community stars ratings in one of the views and I realized I can only use either user star rating or community ratings but not both aesthetic wise:
Original view with user star rating
Modified view with community ratings
The community ratings are rounded up to an integer like 4.3 and then converted to a percentage to stay true to the source: (Netflix dropped the star system and opted for a thumbs and matching system instead in late 2017)
What do you think of the community rating for Bigflix do you prefer it over the old user star rating? please let me know in the comments below!
-
19 minutes ago, Klopjero said:
It's basically the same thing with visual studio.. It would actually be faster with notepad++ and less distracting. . I'm just not as fluid in xaml to know what options go with which elements...
Same here mate, actually 6 months ago I had zero knowledge in XAML and I still don't but I learned by basically taking a popular theme and reverse engineering it to see what code does what to the overall theme, also the sticky thread is a great place to learn more about theme coding and the supplied pdf by Jason does a good job of covering the popular options for theme elements. Also this is a very friendly community so ask around if you want some tips and assistance there are alot of great folks who helps back.
i'm still inexperienced in coding when compared to other great theme makers but i'll try to contribute the best I can so feel free to ask around if you want.
-
1
-
-
7 minutes ago, Klopjero said:
What a fine example of a mobilephone post this morning.
I find it difficult when I'm tweaking what part of the theme... are you having the same problem @SNAK3ATER I can't get a a view in VisualstudioYou'd be surprised to know that most of my work has been done through a tedious sessions of trial and error via notepad++
Basically I can't visualize my work through Visualstudio so I have to insert a code/value via notepad and fire up BigBox to see result of my work, tweak the value again, fire up Bigbox, check your progress, rinse and repeat until you get the "right" look.
I know it's a tedious work and I always swear this will be my final theme but then I see something inspiring and I get back to the theme development all over again
-
Hello @Jason Carr, great work on LB 8.0 and looking forward to Retroarch Netplay integration and thanks for including video support in Wall View!
I have an inquiry regarding steam banner support, what are the current APIs used to retrieve artworks for steam banners? There are a couple of websites I would like you to review for a possibility of integrating them into metadata search as they cover alot of games including other platforms such as classic consoles and arcades:
http://steam.cryotank.net/ - Amazing database for steam banners that covers lots of systems/games
http://www.steamgriddb.com/ - Well known database that offers different steam artwork styles such as Blurred, Textless, minimal and normal game artworks
Steambanners.booru.org - Another great steam grid resource with access to more than 20,000 artworks
Speaking of Steam banner support, it can enhance the look of a theme if the platform has enough artwork content such as windows platform:
However since Windows is the only platform with enough steam banners content that means other platforms will have alot of missing artwork:
In order to remedy this I suggest an ImageType fallback strategy to be implemented where a theme creator or a user specify Bigbox to look for an alternative source if the selected game does not have an artwork in the specified imagetype; For example I can set the theme's main imagetype to Steam banner and the secondary imagetype to fanart/screenshot that way if a game doesn't have an artwork in the steam banner folder Bigbox will look into fanart folder to retrieve the game's missing artwork.
I believe adding the aforementioned websites in LB metadata search and supporting imagetype fallback will help megitate the missing artwork issues in BigBox.
Finally, this might not be as important as solving the missing artwork issue for me but it would be an added benefit to us theme creators:
Add a separate view for the selected game options page, currently this view is tied up with TextGamesView to my knowledge but it would be nice to have an option of designing a unique look for the game options view:
I believe that's all the requests I have for now as you had already answered most of our previous requests so kudos for listening and working with the community Jason!
Cheers,
-
@Klopjero Having a blurry video displayed in the background is a neat trick but unfortunately I don't think Bigbox supports such a feature..btw are those above images from you a Photoshop illustrations or an actual working theme?
Good news is I found an alternative workaround that might tame down the rough edges for now:
I still need to apply some polish here and there but let me know what do you think about this workaround
-
2
-
-
11 hours ago, Klopjero said:
It's as can be expected.. given the videos.. (vectrex to btw) I forget what the view is called but it's the one I modified where the video is played over the Screenshot. .. could you play it there without stretching? I suspect it would fall of the screen... maybe align it to the top screen and mask the bottom part? But then you'd have to add another static picture to your theme...
I can have a look into it if I have a visual guidance of what to work on; please show me some screenshots of the current issue and ideally a visual mockup of how you would like to address the problem
As I mentioned earlier moving forward I will release two versions of this theme:
1- Bigflix 1.1 (Original build that will stay true to the source material i.e. Forced 16x9 fanart background and videos, autoplay feature, buffering animations, etc)
2- Bigflix 1.1 Alternative (This version will implement some of the requests I received like keeping the original aspect ratios of videos and wallpapers, removing timer/buffer animations, etc)----> Community feedback and suggestions are most welcomed!
Now this might be only me but something just doesn't look right aesthetic wise with original aspect ratios in this theme:
In comparison here's how the videos look with the fading mask used to blend the edges into the background in the original theme (using old stock images of the original but they should illustrate my point):
The videos looks very rough around the edges without the faded edges effect of the original theme so i'm not sure if there is anything that can be done to smooth the edges out, any thoughts are welcomed!
-
1
-
-
10 hours ago, Klopjero said:
Thank you!
I will post the code in the near future, is there a way to define alternative art sources for that element? right now I copy box art to the fan background folder, which works fine but is redundant.
Have you had time to look at view of the Nintendo ds? regarding squished videos.Alternative art sources is a much requested feature that we hope @Jason Carr will add in LB 8.0+ iterations. Basically it's similar to @eatkinola AutopathVideoLooper control where a user or theme creators specifies a fallback strategy when setting ImageType element; let's take BIGFLIX as an example:
1- For Horizontal Wheel 1 ideally I would like to set the imagetype for the game boxart to be Steam Banner and Screenshot as a fallback path
2- What this means is that BigBox will look for the artwork of the selected game in Steam banner folder and if there is no artwork available alternatively it will search for the artwork in the secondary folder specified which is Screenshots folder
3- This way the number of default LB placeholders (missing artwork placeholder) will be reduced since the theme will have more coverage and resources to search for the game meta and artwork
Unfortunately, since there is no known method for alternative art sources my theme currently uses Imagetype Screenshots instead of the planned Steam Banner as not many platforms have enough content in that folder. My current workaround is copying steam banners into Screenshots folder which is redundant as you said but finger crossed that Jason will someday implement this feature in Launchbox at the near future.
With regards to the Nintendo DS squished videos, I did some tests and here is my initial workaround:
What do you think does this answer your question?
-
12 hours ago, Klopjero said:
I've modified your theme a bit.
Nothing mayor.. I set stretch to UniformtoFILL and set the vertical allignment to center. That way I can use box art as fanbackgrounds. without looking at squashed boxes.
Hoep you don't mind....
That looks great @Klopjero! May you share your amended codes here so that I can test them for myself?
I'm planning to further test it with different views (for both Fanart backgrounds and videos) and might incorporate it in the next update if it suits the overall theme
-
1
-
-
12 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:
That's gorgeous @SNAK3ATER. Yeah, the wall view backend is still pretty rudimentary, so I still need to flesh it out. Hopefully I can get video support in there soon. Are the videos the only thing that you're missing?
I believe the color outline might be missing but I can't confirm it yet as i'm still messing with the codes.
Example of highlighted color outline:
Thanks for looking into my request, much appreciated Jason!
-
On 12/21/2017 at 9:17 PM, keltoigael said:
The Wall View is a hard one to pin down. I haven't really messed with it to much. I am going to go for a flat look with as little as animation as possible with just a small color outline to show what is highlighted. If that is possible anyways.
I believe that's doable but haven't tested the code yet. I will try and add a color outline for the highlighted game but as you mentioned the wall view is a bit tricky to code.
Thanks @keltoigael and if I managed to nail the color outline i'll definitely share it with you, and for any stuff related to theme development we're all here to help each other out, you know 6 months ago I had zero knowledge in XAML and if it weren't for great guys like @eatkinola @Grila @CriticalCid and all the good folks in this community this theme wouldn't even exist today so thanks to my launchbox fam
@Jason Carr I tried adding a video snap to the wall view but it looks like this view does not support it yet. My idea for this wall view and Bigflix in general is to have a 4K theme that is made for 4K tv and HTPC users thus the UI should be clear, crisp and couch friendly (thus why i'm requesting video snaps as my idea is to have a user highlight a game, gets all the information they ever need in one page and press start to head directly into the game AKA Steam Big Picture mode).
Since the snaps doesn't work I added the game screenshot as a placeholder until video support is added so can you have a look into it for me if possible? i'm also testing color outline for selected game and will report back if it's supported in this view or not.
-
2 hours ago, sagaopc said:
You can create an horizontal games view 3 only to larger box cover?
@sagaopc Sorry I could't understand your question, can you elaborate more please?
Now i'm aware that some people asked me that some of the views in this theme are not compatible visually with some odd shaped box arts as the boxes would overlap each other (i.e. Dreamcast, PS1, SNES, etc) such as the case with Horizontal Wheel View 2 which was designed specifically for vertical DVD style cover platforms such as PS2. See example below of the Horizontal Wheel View 2:
Example with Dreamcast covers platform
Example with Vertical DVD style cover platform
Now since Bigbox can save theme and platform specific view for each platform I will remedy this problem by sharing my personal settings on how to use each view for a given platform optimally (i.e. Horizontal view 1 for Windows and steam platform, HV3 for Wii U platform, etc) with the release of Bigflix 1.1
But that's not all, I also completely overhauled the look and feel of the new Wall View for maximum compatibility with most platform box arts!
Here is a sneak preview of the new wall view in action:
It's still a work in progress as i'm still experimenting with new ideas and tweaking the code for a smoother experience but as you can see this view works well with most Box art covers even the odd ones such as PS1 boxes
Any ideas and thoughts are welcomed!
-
3
-
-
On 10/17/2017 at 10:36 AM, Klopjero said:
I have another question.. the Nintendo DS Video's are squished. could video's be scaled the a certain width but keep the aspect ratio ? what i mean is, nintendo DS video's are 480 x 720 but are displayed as 480x360.
I really like this theme. and I'm just making suggestions that would in my opinion make it better. same goes for the boxart being used as fan backgrounds, that I mentioned above.
I'll fire up photoshop this evening to illustrate what i mean.
@SNAK3ATERHello @Klopjero sorry for the lat e response but an illustration and some visual feedback from your side would give me a better understanding on your requests. I'll try and incorporate your feedbacks whenever possible unto Bigflix 1.1 Alternative theme
On 10/28/2017 at 7:09 AM, psych0matt said:Is there a way to disable the autohide feature? I have mine start directly into playlists, and if possible I'd like the horizontal list of consoles to stay on screen. I didn't see a setting for it.
@psych0matt Yes there is, as a matter of fact I created a horizontal platform Alternative view with disabled autohide feature to save you or anyone the trouble of manually messing with the theme codes.
Unzip the file and place it in ...\LaunchBox\Themes\BIGFLIX\Views and replace when prompted.
Merry Christmas everyone!
-
2
-
-
Hello everyone,
It's been a while since I was active and after a long hiatus from theme development I decided to resume my work again.
Launchbox and Bigbox have seen a rapid development the last few months and I have alot to catch up to and familiarize myself with...here is something I created today after messing around with the new wall view:
What do you guys think
? any feedback in further improving this theme and my other projects are appreciated and just for your information here is a roadmap for my upcoming projects:
1- Bigflix 1.1
2- Bigflix 1.1 Alternative (This version will implement some of the requests I received like keeping the original aspect ratios of videos and wallpapers, removing timer/buffer animations, etc)
3- RetrAO Cafe 1.7 (I promise this will be a major update will lots of added features and views)
4- RetAO Cafe 1.7 Lite (As the name suggests this will be light on system resources but will enjoy the added features of the original theme)
5- Project X Zone (WIP new theme i've been developing for a while)
Stay tuned for new updates!
-
3
-
-
9 hours ago, znerolnoht said:
Thanks for the help. I just tried that but no luck. I've attached a few images.
The first image LB and the game play video runs no prob.
The next two images are different views in BB. I circled the area where I think the game play video should be running but it's not. Instead a placeholder video called static.mp4 plays. I looked in the theme to find reference to static.mp4 or game play videos but couldn't find one.
Hey @znerolnoht
I'm currently on a vacation and will be back next week so I have limited access to internet but i'll try to assist you whenever possible
Based on the screenshots it seems that Bigbox cannot pull media information for some reason as the "No signal" effect only plays when the selected game lacks media files (video snaps or images) but from what I can tell you do have the media files on launchbox so that's indeed a weird situation..
Try the following solutions and let me know what works for you:
1- Launch BigBox and go to options and select RetrAO Cafe as your theme, then go to video options and make sure the recommended video engine is set to "VLC" and also make sure you tick all the options as well
2- If the problem still persists try downloading another theme and check if you're facing the same issue in other themes as well
Also share with me a screenshot of the video option in your Bigbox and please upload a zip file containing your RetrAO Cafe theme folder and I will try to replicate the issue on my system once i'm back next week
-
43 minutes ago, kerszr said:
got any more?
Yeah I'm working on creating an official set for the upcoming BIGFLIX 1.1 but I'm having challenges finding hi-res images for older platforms like Amiga for example
If anyone could guide me on where to get Hi-res wallpapers for retro games/systems that would help me a lot!
-
18 minutes ago, ALIE said:
This is exactly why i hope theme specific game covers is a feature we might see soon
. This and Grilas BigForce Theme relies heavily or looks better with vertical DVD style covers. And they aren't hard to find but switching out all covers for a theme and then switching back when using a different theme wouldn't be fun.
True that @ALIE, Theme specific game covers is a much requested feature as it will save theme creators the trouble and headache of allocating what views available for what game medias.
With regards to BIGFLIX I tried to design different views to cater to different game media files but offcourse some compatibility issue would arise as some views were not designed for specific media files..A prominent example would be Games Horizontal view 2, this view was designed with vertical DVD style covers in mind so obviously any cover that has an odd shape would not look nice as covers would overlap.
Can this be fixed? Yes, it could be fixed but then the view would deviate away from my original design vision of this view. Here is an example to illustrate my point:
My original vision for Horizontal Games view 2 (designed for vertical DVD style cover platforms)
Here is how this view would look if platforms with odd game covers styles is used (lets use Dreamcast in this example)
The boxes overlap due to the spacing values that were set specifically for Vertical DVD covers styles. Can it be fixed? Technically Yes, here is the Horizontal view 2 with the fix:
That's great Snake, but why wasn't this included in the official BIGFLIX 1.0? The answer is that yes although it would fix the spacing between odd shaped cover styles it would not look as good with vertical DVD cover styles which was the whole purpose of the design of this view. Here's how the view would look with Vertical DVD cover styles after applying the fix:
There is alot of empty spacing between vertical DVD style covers which goes against my design ethos thus it was a small comprise I had to make in order to stick with my original vision
Hope this helps with why I went with this route for Horizontal Games View 2
-
On 7/24/2017 at 8:49 PM, WarMFusioN said:
@SNAK3ATER, Great theme!!!
But I noticed a lot of my box art overlap. (dreamcast, gba, n64, psx...)
Also, I when I scroll through my games I get multiple buffering graphics overlapping on each other.
See both issues in attached image.
Do I have something set up wrong?
No your setup is fine @WarMFusioN, that was intentional from my part
Guys i'm not sure if you are aware but the views of this theme were designed for a specific design ethos; that means a view might look beautiful for certain platforms but not for every platform.
When I designed this theme I had three design sketches in mind: 1- Banner/Fanart view 2- Boxart view 3- List view
To have a rundown of how this theme should be setup, consider the example below that is based on my personal setup:
1- Banner/Fanart Views (Platform Views 1-3 and Games Horizontal View 1 and 3):
These views were designed for platforms that has HD 16:9 videos, Game fanart backgrounds and Banner/screenshots media files. This view looks great on certain platforms that has the aforementioned media files such as Windows, Wii U, Wii, Wii wares and Arcade (provided you downloaded the Bigbox Cinematix games themes). Also if you downloaded HD 16:9 Game themes videos from various community members here (Sega Genesis, SNES, NES, PS1, etc) then these views will look beautiful on these platforms as well.
2- Boxart Views (Games Horizontal View 2 Coverflow view and Coverflow with details views)
Due to the different Boxart shapes and sizes for different systems (i.e Square PS1 Boxart vs. Long rectangle PS2 Boxart) These views were designed for certain platforms that fits a certain criteria which means there will be compatibility issues with other platforms that does not fit the view's criteria.
The Horizontal View 2 was designed for platforms that has Long front Boxart such as Sega Genesis, saturn, Nintendo NES, Gamecube, wii, Wii U, PS2, etc.. Thus platforms with odd Boxart shapes such as Sega dreamcast, N64, SNES, PS1, etc would not look nice as the boxarts would overlap with each other.
For the rest of the platforms that has an odd boxart shape I designed Coverflow games with details view and Coverflow view. These two views should look nice with most of the platforms in your setup and has the best compatibility for various platforms:
3- List View:
This view is designed to be compatible with all of the platforms in your setup, the only requirement for this view is to have Game videos be it 4:3 or 16:9
The square design of the video snap in this view means it would look beautiful with platforms that has 4:3 video snaps but it should also look fine with 16:9 videos as those will be stretched to fill the entire border
1 hour ago, Thatman84 said:Awesome run down @SNAK3ATER. Many thanks
Maybe a little copy and paste or link that post in the theme download for future reference.
Yeah will definitely update the Theme download page with a FAQ and tutorial sections once BIGFLIX v1.1 is out, thanks for the suggestion!
-
4 minutes ago, mr 2fngrz said:
@SNAK3ATER, that's EXACTLY what I was needing to know. Thanks bud!!!
You're welcome bro, let me how the theme turns out for you!
-
1
-
BIGFLIX: A new user experience for your HTPC
in Big Box Custom Themes
Posted
These looks gorgeous Klopjero! Can't wait for the rest of the artwork!
The theme is ready and i'm planning to release it sometimes this week, here's the final teaser of Bigflix 1.1:
Now i'm not sure if I should keep it's name as Bigflix and have the user choose between the original version or the alternative version or should I rename it into something different so that people can use both versions.
If I shall rename it then what should it be? I'm thinking of keeping the original build as BIGFLIX and this alternative build as BIGFLIX PLUS..What do you guys think share with me your ideas of a better name below!