eatkinola

March 17, 2019

Updated dropins, including a new one called PlatformExporter -- created to export LB platform libraries for use by EmulationStation. I built a little retropie box and wanted a quick way to export the games including metadata I had curated within LB.

March 15, 2019

55 minutes ago, JaysArcade said:

If I get to it I will try it. Gotta figure out what that button ID is first. I know if Steam is running in the background, pressing the guide button opens it. I'm sure there is a way to disable that though. I'll look into it.

Yes retroarch does the same thing, showing menu when guide button pressed; so I disabled that in retroarch and the ds4 guide button works great for WL.

Easy way to find the button ID is to use the BigBox settings controller mapping feature, and pretend to map the guide button to something (you can then quickly clear out that mapping). I'll provide some more details when I post the WL update.

March 15, 2019

20 minutes ago, JaysArcade said:

Question, Just curious, does the "custom mapped "function" buttons, e.g., activate pause menu via DS4's PS-logo button" work with the Xbox 360/ XBOne controllers with the xbox guide button as well? Maybe this was already a feature and I didn't realize it.

It should as long as you specify the button id in the WL config file. I use DS4 so I could test with that only. It's a new feature that will be in the WL update I'll post this weekend. Would be great if u could test it with the Xbox controller.

March 14, 2019

Have an update almost ready to go:

* ADDED: gamepad mappings to directly exit game w/o needing to use pause screen; @JaysArcade
* ADDED: game resume option to pause menu, inspired by @Chadmando's new pause menu app
* ADDED: custom mapped "function" buttons, e.g., activate pause menu via DS4's PS-logo button

Any suggestions let me know, and perhaps I can roll it into this update.

March 14, 2019

6 hours ago, FlightRisk said:

I have a Raspberry Pi setup too that runs everything up into the 90s. That one is more about experimenting with what I can get out of a Pi and having something portable. So my $30 single board computer runs 90% of what I actually play.

^^ this ... recently made a little retropie setup using a nespi case and it's very nice. It's not as flashy as LB/BB but it's so easy to use. I made a little LB plugin to export the LB library to EmulationStation (on retropie), and I'll probably upload that plugin soon.

February 24, 2019

6 hours ago, daphnefan said:

no log file appears in that folder but ive attached the log produced by LB

Thanks for the info. Would you please try FluxCRT and see if the same thing happens? It's pretty similar to Refaktor under the hood but has a few differences. Might help me narrow it down a bit. If you could also check MinmalX that'd be helpful, too.

February 24, 2019

20 hours ago, JaysArcade said:

Is this an intended function, a bug, or am I overlooking something?

Might be a bug. I've not noticed in my setup, but I don't use AHK scripts outside of WL so maybe that's why. Does it only occur with certain emulators in BB?

20 hours ago, JaysArcade said:

I"m not sure about anyone else, but I don't have a reason to pause before exiting. I just like to hit my exit button on my cabinet and go back to the menu.

Yeah that's just personal preference. I can see users wanting either approach. I use the pause menu to exit, and that way the emu exit is baked into WL and I don't need any extra WL scripts. I guess I could add an option to WL to map an exit button combo that would work across all emus supported by WL. Do you think that would be useful?

February 24, 2019

20 hours ago, JaysArcade said:

Hope I'm not being a pest, lol.

Not at all. Apologies for the radio silence. I've got some hectic stuff going on at the moment, travel stuff.

20 hours ago, JaysArcade said:

About my previous post and naming conventions. What would I name bezels for MAME if I wanted a single generic vertical bezel and a single generic horizontal bezel? Is this possible?

File names such as for bezels should be explained in the PDF for WL. You can name per emulator (including for core if RA), and game. For vertical vs horizontal, I'd recommend naming the horizontal bezel MAME (if that's how you name the emulator in LB). Then, you could place your vertical bezel is the Games subfolder and name the file using the LB game ID. You'll have to have a copy of the vertical overlay for each game, unless you could somehow use mklink (not sure that would work). I actually recommend letting RA or MAME manage the bezels so you can then use with or without WL did you want, but that's just my opinion. I let RA handle all it's own bezels.

February 22, 2019

10 hours ago, JaysArcade said:

Finally, Wootlauncher worked the way it is supposed to. Geez. Sorry for the trouble @eatkinola. At least we know where I went astray and can help someone in the future that might run into the same situation. Ask them if they turned off their overlay settings within RetroArch.

Hey, it's no trouble at all! Appreciate you doing a thorough job of troubleshooting and reporting back. I'm sure your efforts will help someone else down the road.

I actually just let retroarch handle it's own overlays, and WL does overlays for emus that don't support them such as dolphin and demul. Whether overlays are provided by retroarch or WL, the pause menu should still work just fine.

February 21, 2019

3 minutes ago, spycat said:

@xllovera

I'm not too sure whether you want to edit the theme or just hide the platform banners.
In BigBox try going to Options, Images and disabling the Show Platform Banner Images tickbox

Good call spycat -- that'd be much easier for xllovera.

February 21, 2019

Identify the platform view file by going to the BB options menu -> Views -> Platforms List View (what is currently selected as the platform view). Then, look for a file with a name like that in the Views folder. The line(s) of code you need to comment out should be in that xaml file. Not trying to be vague, just want to point you in the right direction. There are an endless number of mods you can do to a theme. Don't be afraid to try stuff out and see what happens. Just keep a backup file to restore if needed, or download the theme again if things really get messed up. That's how I learned to create themes, and I messed up a lot; hopefully I eventually got some things right...

You can always contact the creator of that theme, but please do a little more digging first; maybe post the code you think you need to modify or something.

February 19, 2019

1 hour ago, JaysArcade said:

Hi @eatkinola, I just tried it again with 1.1. No change I'm afraid. Let me know if there is something in particular you'd like me to try.

That's a bummer. I tried every combination of video_fullscreen, video_windowed_fullscreen, and ui_menubar_enable, but I cannot reproduce that problem on my system. If I've got it right, the problem is that when you use a combination of these options that successfully hides the menubar, the pause menu does not work. It sounds like it's not properly capturing or holding onto the RA window, and two things I can think of could cause this: (1) RA is somehow starting in exclusive fullscreen mode (you would probably see a black flicker on your monitor when starting up), or (2) the RA fullscreen toggle (e.g., "F" by default) is being triggered somehow -- I know that will break the pause menu because it will lose the RA window it captured. Any chance one of these is going on? Using a dual-monitor setup in a special way? It might help to see your log file again when this happens. Also, are you using anything else such as a AHK script from within LB?

In case it matters (it shouldn't), I use RA core overrides to configure my emulators. This is what I use for the nestopia core:

Spoiler


# FULLSCREEN VIDEO
video_fullscreen = "true"
video_fullscreen_x = "1920"
video_fullscreen_y = "1080"

# VIEWPORT W/OVERLAY
aspect_ratio_index = "23"
custom_viewport_width = "1380"
custom_viewport_height = "1010"
custom_viewport_x = "270"
custom_viewport_y = "30"
input_overlay = ":\@my\opsonins\overlays\NINTENDO_NES.cfg"
input_overlay_opacity = "1"

# SHADER: CRT W/CURVATURE
video_shader = ":\@my\opsonins\shaders\crt-geom.glslp"
video_shader_enable = "true"
video_smooth = "false"

# PATHS FOR CONFIG/SAVES/ETC.
savefile_directory = ":\@my\saves\savefiles\NES"
savestate_directory = ":\@my\saves\savestates\NES"
screenshot_directory = ":\@my\saves\screenshots\NES"
core_options_path = ":\@my\config\NESTOPIA\NESTOPIA-coropts.cfg"

# DO NOT AUTO-OVERWRITE THIS!
config_save_on_exit = "false"

February 18, 2019

On 12/31/2018 at 12:04 PM, JaysArcade said:

When I have them both set to true, I can pause my game but I see no pause menu. If I have video fullscreen false and video windowed fullscreen set to true, then the Pause menu comes up for me but I have the file menu at the top. When they are both set to true, If I alt-tab to the active RA session, I can sometimes see the pause menu flash briefly like it is hidden behind the RA window but not getting focus. On a couple of occasions I was able to get the menu to come up after doing the alt tab trick but the pause menu was unresponsive. H'mmm, maybe I should have helped you beta test. I'm loving what I see so far though. The pause menu, when I get it to work is so much nicer (in my opinion) than Rocket Launcher's pause menu.

@JaysArcade: Could you try the new version 1.1 when you have time and let me know if you still have this issue?

February 17, 2019

29 minutes ago, daphnefan said:

@eatkinola so I've left attract mode running for most of the day and I noticed two things:

It doesn't lock up big box anymore! However, after some time (maybe an hour or more) it will completely quit bigbox and send me back to windows. But it works much better now!

Well at least that's progress! Does it show an error message when quitting BigBox, and does that happen with WMP or VLC? Anything in the log file?

Refaktor\Plugins\Ao.Bigbox.Themer.v3_9_2\AssemblyLogger\

Does it look like it's running out of memory? How much RAM in your system?

Edit: P.s. to generate a log file you have to enable logging in LaunchBox

February 17, 2019

Ao.Bigbox Customs

View File

Ao.Bigbox Customs is a collection of LB/BB plugins. The Themer library contains custom controls useful for theme developers. The Dropins library contains true plugins you can just drop into the LB plugins folder. By default, the only drop-in enabled is WootLauncher; enabling the other drop-ins is easy (see the PDF doc download). Here are the included drop-ins:

GameManualViewer: Adds menu item "Game Manual 8D" (string is customizable) to the game details menu in BB, if the game has an associated PDF manual. When activated, the PDF will be read and converted to images on the fly for display within BigBox; it will not launch an external program. As occasionally some manuals take a few seconds to load, an animated GIF is displayed while you wait. The gif is currently a space invader, but I might add customization in the future. When viewing the PDF manual, use the standard keys (or gamepad buttons) used to navigate around BigBox.

PlatformAuditor: Adds another media audit tool for LB with support for OCD-type personalities. This can help you quickly find a platform's missing game media and rename media according to the game's title. It can also be used to delete superfluous media. It works for images, manuals, music, and videos. As with any tool that potentially modifies your library, consider backing up your media folders before using this.

PlatformExporter: Adds a simple way to export games including metadata and boxart to other applications. Currently, the only application to which it exports is EmulationStation. Support for other applications might be added in the future, if there is enough demand and I have enough time and interest in doing so.

PlaylistGenerator: Adds playlists to your library but does not otherwise alter your library. Playlists are regenerated each time LB/BB is started. You can add your own media (videos, banners, etc) for the playlist, in the same way you would for manually generated playlists in LaunchBox. This media will not be overwritten when the playlists are regenerated. You can customize the names of these playlists and number of games added to each.

WootLauncher: Adds game load/exit screens, pause screens including support for viewing PDF manuals and save/load states, and bezels/overlays (useful for emulators which do not themselves support overlays). There is a separate download page dedicated to WL:

Spoiler

Here are some of the themes that use Ao.Bigbox.Themer

FluxCRT - videos displayed within a mock CRT including curvature effect
MinimalX - simple but very flexible (skinnable) theme with some cool controls
Nostalgia - videos displayed within viking's clean and nostalgic platform images
Refaktor - clean view suited for 16:9 or 4:3 displays and videos/screenshots of all sizes

Submitter

eatkinola
Submitted

02/17/2019
Category

Third-party Apps and Plugins

February 17, 2019

6 minutes ago, qu1r0s said:

Is there any way to change the progress thing for other information or simply delete it? I think is hardcoded...but i have to ask ?

Yea the format of this text is hardcoded. You can however remove this Progress line entirely. Look for this in AOStyles.xaml:

    <!-- FILT/GAME: METADATA TABLES (SIDEBAR) -->
    <FontFamily x:Key="AOMetadataTableFontFamily_TAG">Calibri</FontFamily>
    <FontWeight x:Key="AOMetadataTableFontWeight_TAG">Bold</FontWeight>
    <SolidColorBrush x:Key="AOMetadataTableFontColor" Color="#CCFFFFFF" />
    <Style x:Key="AOMetadataTableSide" TargetType="aop:AbstractMetadataTable">
        <Setter Property="TagFontFamily" Value="{DynamicResource AOMetadataTableFontFamily_TAG}" />
        <Setter Property="TagFontWeight" Value="{StaticResource AOMetadataTableFontWeight_TAG}" />
        <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{StaticResource AOMetadataTableFontColor}" />
    </Style>
    <Style x:Key="AOMetadataTableSide_PLAT" TargetType="aop:PlatformMetadataTable" BasedOn="{StaticResource AOMetadataTableSide}">
        <Setter Property="FieldOrder" Value="PlatformGamesCompleted,PlatformStarRatingsAvg,PlatformReleaseYear" />
        <Setter Property="ColumnBalance" Value="-0.15" />
    </Style>
    <Style x:Key="AOMetadataTableSide_GAME" TargetType="aop:GameMetadataTable" BasedOn="{StaticResource AOMetadataTableSide}">
        <Setter Property="FieldOrder" Value="GamePlatform,GameProgress,GameReleaseYear" />
        <Setter Property="ColumnBalance" Value="-0.15" />
    </Style>

For AOMetadataTableSide_GAME, edit "FieldOrder" to remove "GameProgress". Available options for fields are:

Spoiler

/**
* Field name enumeration for this control.
*/
public enum FieldNames {
None,
GameAgeRating,
GameDeveloper,
GameGenres,
GamePlatform,
GamePlayModes,
GameProgress,
GameRegion,
GameReleaseYear,
GameStarRating,
PlatformControllers,
PlatformCpu,
PlatformDeveloper,
PlatformDisplay,
PlatformGraphics,
PlatformManufacturer,
PlatformMedia,
PlatformMemory,
PlatformReleaseYear, // note: calculated maybe
PlatformSound,
PlatformGamesCompleted, // note: calculated field
PlatformLastPlayedDate, // note: calculated field
PlatformLastPlayedGame, // note: calculated field
PlatformLastPlayedGada, // note: calculated field
PlatformMostPlayedGame, // note: calculated field
PlatformStarRatingsAvg // note: calculated field
}

Your theme mods look nice!

February 17, 2019

Updated WootLauncher v1.1 -- see changelog on download page for details

@Spiro9210: one of the changes includes support for what you asked above

February 17, 2019

5 hours ago, qu1r0s said:

@eatkinola cache is not refresing on this theme, i had to do it manually inside "MinimalX/Plugins/Ao.Bigbox.Themer.v3_9_2". I don't know if this is because the changes i made or if it's something related to the plugin (i have no idea about programming).

That's currently the only way to do it. There are two ways I could help automate this: (1) have it automatically delete the cache for a theme when you switch to that theme, or (2) create a system menu item for doing this. I kinda like option 1 as it'd quietly do it's thing in the background; the cache would not be deleted when starting BB, only when actually changing to that theme in BB.

5 hours ago, qu1r0s said:

By the way this is one of the best themes, i've been using this and flux for a long time and i'm amazed how customizable and well documented are your themes, so easy to change everything.

Awesome, thanks! I try to keep things documented partly so I can remember how they work later. I do need to document the cache thing better.

February 16, 2019

On 12/6/2018 at 7:24 PM, horse said:

i have followed all notes but i cannot get my video snaps working, tried vlc/media player options in bigbox, i dont know what im doing wrong?

FYI posted an update that might resolve that problem from before. The update includes changes pertaining to WMP and especially VLC.

February 16, 2019

On 2/15/2019 at 9:57 AM, daphnefan said:

Great news! I really look forward to the update. I loved the theme but couldn't keep using it due to the locking up.

Posted the update -- please try it out and let me know how it goes on your system.

February 14, 2019

On 12/23/2018 at 9:46 PM, daphnefan said:

@eatkinola hey, I think I discovered an issue. It seems the theme locks up Big Box after a while of Attract Mode running. I've had it happen twice today FYI. Otherwise I really like it!

Well it's been awhile but I found time to dig into this more and am almost positive I found the problem; it was a pretty sneaky memory leak. I should be able to post an update over the weekend. Thanks again for bringing this to my attention; this same bug was affecting another one of my themes.

February 9, 2019

3 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

@eatkinola That error appears to be an issue with the DirectX install. I have no idea why that would just suddenly appear as an issue, but maybe try re-running the LaunchBox installer, and make sure that the DirectX portion of the installer completes successfully (the part that requires UAC admin access). Otherwise, you could try using Microsoft's DirectX installer.

Bingo -- reinstalled Beta 10 and works fine, so +1 on the directx install issue. Thanks Jason. Now I'll install Beta 11 ... all this progress!

February 8, 2019

I'm getting an error in beta-10 every time I start either LB or BB. I close the error dialog and things work as expected, but the error dialog pops up every time. I get it even when using no plugins at all and using the default theme. I'm hoping it's just a random thing on my system and goes away with the next upgrade.

Spoiler

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name:   CLR20r3
Problem Signature 01:   LaunchBox.exe
Problem Signature 02:   9.4.0.10
Problem Signature 03:   5c5b2501
Problem Signature 04:   LaunchBox
Problem Signature 05:   9.4.0.10
Problem Signature 06:   5c5b2501
Problem Signature 07:   59c
Problem Signature 08:   0
Problem Signature 09:   System.NullReferenceException
OS Version:   6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID:   1033
Additional Information 1:   bcf7
Additional Information 2:   bcf7c492599ba74f416e8dcbb5b6b212
Additional Information 3:   9d5f
Additional Information 4:   9d5f671d23e0c68624ab270066e5d06f

Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

Log:

Spoiler

2019-02-07 07:52:26 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Unable to load DLL 'xaudio2_8.dll': The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)
at SharpDX.XAudio2.XAudio28Functions.XAudio2Create_(Void* arg0, Int32 arg1, Int32 arg2)
at SharpDX.XAudio2.XAudio28Functions.XAudio2Create(XAudio2 xAudio2Out, Int32 flags, Int32 xAudio2Processor)
2019-02-07 07:52:28 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Application identity is not set.
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationDeployment.get_CurrentDeployment()
2019-02-07 07:52:28 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Input string was not in a correct format.
at System.Number.ParseDouble(String value, NumberStyles options, NumberFormatInfo numfmt)
2019-02-07 07:52:28 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Input string was not in a correct format.
at System.Number.ParseDouble(String value, NumberStyles options, NumberFormatInfo numfmt)
2019-02-07 07:52:28 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Input string was not in a correct format.
at System.Number.ParseDouble(String value, NumberStyles options, NumberFormatInfo numfmt)
2019-02-07 07:52:28 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Input string was not in a correct format.
at System.Number.ParseDouble(String value, NumberStyles options, NumberFormatInfo numfmt)
2019-02-07 07:52:28 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Input string was not in a correct format.
at System.Number.ParseDouble(String value, NumberStyles options, NumberFormatInfo numfmt)
2019-02-07 07:52:28 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Input string was not in a correct format.
at System.Number.ParseDouble(String value, NumberStyles options, NumberFormatInfo numfmt)
2019-02-07 07:52:28 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Input string was not in a correct format.
at System.Number.ParseDouble(String value, NumberStyles options, NumberFormatInfo numfmt)
2019-02-07 07:52:28 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Input string was not in a correct format.
at System.Number.ParseDouble(String value, NumberStyles options, NumberFormatInfo numfmt)
2019-02-07 07:52:28 PM Music.Resume Start
2019-02-07 07:52:28 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at MS.Internal.Automation.ProxyManager.LoadDefaultProxies()
2019-02-07 07:52:29 PM Music.Pause Start
2019-02-07 07:52:29 PM Music.Resume Start
2019-02-07 07:52:33 PM Music.Initialize Start
2019-02-07 07:52:33 PM Music.Kill Start
2019-02-07 07:52:33 PM Music.Kill Finished
2019-02-07 07:52:42 PM Music.Pause Start
2019-02-07 07:52:43 PM Music.Resume Start
2019-02-07 07:53:55 PM Music.StopAndResumeBackground Start
2019-02-07 07:53:55 PM Music.Kill Start
2019-02-07 07:53:55 PM Music.Kill Finished
2019-02-07 07:53:56 PM Music.Kill Start
2019-02-07 07:53:56 PM Music.Kill Finished
2019-02-07 07:53:59 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: The process cannot access the file 'Visited Links' because it is being used by another process.
at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)
2019-02-07 07:53:59 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: The process cannot access the file 'Visited Links' because it is being used by another process.
at System.IO.Directory.DeleteHelper(String fullPath, String userPath, Boolean recursive, Boolean throwOnTopLevelDirectoryNotFound, WIN32_FIND_DATA& data)
2019-02-07 07:53:59 PM EXCEPTION IGNORED: The process cannot access the file 'Visited Links' because it is being used by another process.
at System.IO.Directory.DeleteHelper(String fullPath, String userPath, Boolean recursive, Boolean throwOnTopLevelDirectoryNotFound, WIN32_FIND_DATA& data)
at System.IO.Directory.Delete(String fullPath, String userPath, Boolean recursive, Boolean checkHost)
at (ExitMenuAction )

February 7, 2019

Refaktor is cool, but I made it so a bit biased. It's designed to work with 4:3 as well as widescreen setups. Saw no one had replied, so thought I'd throw it out there. I'm working on an update, so if you try it out and have suggestions lemme know.

February 6, 2019

8 hours ago, Spiro9210 said:

Hello, is it possible to make this plugin only active for a single emulator such as Dolphin and disabled for the rest of the emulators in LB?

Should be able to do that. There are a few different approaches. Do you use the built in startup screens for the other emulators?

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Posts posted by eatkinola

Ao.Bigbox Customs