Retrofrogg

I'm in the process of standardising the structure of my Launchbox platform/playlist tree, so that each platform in my collection has the same layout. I'm looking for ideas and wonder how other people are organising theirs. I think the most logical "view" for the tree is the "Platform Category" view. My top menu then currently looks like this (I'll probably have pinball in there soon also): Using consoles as an example, I then have them grouped by manufacturer (if the manufacturer made more than one console). I haven't added them all yet, so currently it looks like this: Then within manufacturer, I have the console name or group. If the console had different names in different regions, and if there were add-ons or other variations, then I group these together. So for Nintendo: Since the NES had different names in different regions, these are separated out in LB (with the corresponding games) but grouped together. So , as an example, for "NES Related": The "Nintendo Entertainment System" will have primarily USA/North America games, though also other regions which used that system. Famicom is Japan. Opening up NES for example: In terms of organisation within a platform, I have "all games" at the top, then favourites and then the primary region, generally "USA & North America" unless the console is from another specific region. I then have any specific collections for that console, for example: These obviously vary depending on the platform. Then after collections I have the standard Launchbox auto-generated playlist groups "Play Modes" and "Regions". If a platform was the same for every region, then I tend to take the 2 largest regions (generally USA/North America and Japan) and put those in the top level menu of that platform for convenience. What are other "collectors" doing?

Or you can just edit the playlist itself and un-check the auto-populate box.

Unfortunately not - it's definitely an area that can be developed. BigBox supports 2 monitors - the second one being called the "marquee" monitor. Launchbox supports only 1 - though 2 monitor support in Launchbox would be such an improvement that hopefully the team are looking into it!

Just a thought - platform details in the game details panel - why not utilise the main window for this, instead of limiting it to the game details panel? That way we can get some great platform videos etc at a decent size.

To stick to the topic, and to mention some poll items that have not been mention in this thread yet; 3D model box support Do people understand the magnitude of the possibilities here? If you had a 3D model of a particular game box, then other than the awesomeness of having a rotatable box - as close as you can get to the real thing without holographics - you also wouldn't need front, back, 3D box images - as Launchbox could automatically render these from the 3D model. Theoretically you could then render any view or angle you wanted. This would be endgame material as far as box art is concerned. Show platform details and media when selecting a platform with no game selected Currently 97% of the focus in Launchbox is on the games. But to bring in the platforms also....the platform details, pictures, videos (e.g. Viking videos etc) - this would really expand the scope of Launchbox and bring it to the next level. For those of us who don't use BigBox this would be a godsend.

Browse Launchbox on a nice big LCD, launch on a CRT with MiSTer.

@C-Beats beat me to it! That should do the trick though.

Retrofrogg modified game details view View File I've modified the default game details view with a few changes as summarised in the picture above. Submitter Retrofrogg Submitted 04/05/2022 Category LaunchBox Custom Themes  

Did you ever sort this?

Yep, that does the trick!

A single-click link to the manual in the game details view would be excellent, rather than having to right-click on games and navigate sub-menus.

@faeran I like the "related games feature". Any reason why ForceVideoPreview16X9 is set to true, as it seems to lead to black bars being present? Would it be possible to have the game details view show the game banner instead of the text above the carousel? Or if there is no banner, to show the clear logo (and if no clear logo then just the game name)?

Certainly, will do!

Haven't had any response to this - there is an ongoing issue where some images in the carousel aren't thumbnailed properly. This occurs pretty frequently. If you click on the blurry thumbnail, then it does show the correct image above it. Example below:

@gamesmame - the Launchbox scraper can grab those

Sega Genesis (USA/North America) 2.5D Front Box Art Pack, Hyperreal Series View File Sega Megadrive USA/North America region box art. 741 images (No-Intro set) - let me know if any errors or omissions. A few extras are included for non-physical releases. I have my regions currently separated into USA/North America, Japan and Europe; anything not falling into the former 2 regions tends to fall into the Europe region. Why these images? Short of proper 3D model box support in Launchbox, I find that "2.5D" is often the best box image type. 3D boxes can be good and I use them for some platforms, though the angle that they tend to be at makes the cover art a bit less clear, and all the spines can give an overall cluttered appearance which can be distracting from the artwork. The standard scraped box-front images tend to just look like jpg computer images and not the actual physical product. That's where 2.5D comes in. By 2.5D I mean that the image is of the actual front artwork, within the box, facing head on. I'm a perfectionist and want the images to look as realistic as possible - just like the original game boxes. This set is therfore created using a photo-realistic hard plastic case template (not a vector model), complete with the little box hanger and mottled plastic cover, within which the artwork sleeve is inserted. There is some subtle lighting and shadow effect. I went through each item individually so that I could tailor the effect depending on the brightness and contrast of the box art. I'm aiming to create the most realistic sets out there, and am open to any feedback or suggestions. This is over a week's work - in future I will use a Photoshop automation and just set the effect somewhere in the middle, in order to save time! Submitter Retrofrogg Submitted 03/17/2022 Category Game Box Art