The Papaw

There is a setting in BB for videos to do a Horizontal Flip or Cube transition when navigating. It only flips one way though. I have seen themes that will flip an object two ways depending on the direction you navigate, even the default theme does it. How would I implement that into a theme I created in CTC that could still be edited in CTC? I don't see a simple way to accomplish this in CTC, thought maybe I could do a hybrid like @faeran did with Retrofresh with the notes in the horizontalgameview. All replies appreciated

The Game Zone (Multiple BB Instances via AHK script) View File Allows you to Easily use multiple instances of Bigbox on each PC to improve speeds in navigation by splitting up platforms and running them from a single app. Also allows you to customize each instance to use different themes, platform videos, etc.. Includes a ReadMe in the folder I wrote this AHK script to make it easy to run multiple instances of Bigbox on the same PC. The reason I did this was I noticed my main LB/BB rig was getting so big that navigation was starting to slow down, especially in arcade using the newer themes. It was even worse on the older PC's thoughout he house. I got the idea that maybe if I split the platforms up into different copies of LB/BB I might get a smoother experience, especially on older PC's and it worked. The script can be easily changed and customized to your needs. It's simple to change the images, background, layout, number of instances, etc. with much more than Notepad++. It takes a little work to set things up, but works pretty well after your done. Just extract it and put the "The Game Zone" folder where you want. Here is what you need do to Prepare: - this is most of the work 1. Make a copy of your Launchbox folder before doing anything just as a backup in case you have a boo-boo and something gets messed up. That makes it easy to go back. I'd leave it alone until finished. 2. If your game media, including roms, (images, videos, music, manuals) is within your Launchbox folder, you will need to move or make a copy of it all to a centralized location Outside the default Launchbox folder. This excludes your Platform Categories, Platforms, Playlists folders and startup videos. Mine is actually on a shared NAS folder. This keeps you from creating and having multiple copies of your roms and game media in a later step. 3. Next, you need to edit the paths to each of them in the "Folders" section of Launchbox by right clicking on a platform, then Edit > Folders (tab) and navigate each of them to where you put the media OR edit the Platform xml (../Launchbox/Data/Platforms) files with Notepad++ so Launchbox uses the new centralized media locations. Notepad++ is faster and easier, but more chance of errors. 4. After your media is in a centralized location, you can delete it all from your default Launchbox folders. 5. Next, make multiple copies of your edited Launchbox folder and rename them the following (only if you wish to use the script "As Is"): LB-Arcade LB-Retro LB-Modern by default the script uses your normal Launchbox instance for the Master system. 6. Lastly, you will need to edit the AHK script to match the different path instances that you have chosen. Mine are as follows and what the script is using by default: D:\Gaming\Apps\LB-Arcade D:\Gaming\Apps\LB-Retro D:\Gaming\Apps\LB-Modern D:\Gaming\Apps\LaunchBox (master system with all platforms) After everything is all set up and working, you can play with modding to your taste and needs. TIPS: I do all my maintenance work in my master instance and use Syncthings to copy the appropriate platform xml files to the appropriate LB instances, that way I do the work once and the other instances are updated automatically. Yep, I'm lazy! There is a shortcut in the folder to drop on the desktop. You might have to fix the icon for it (copy of it in the "The Game Zone" folder), since my paths may be different than yours. I think that's it. This is my first AHK script and was fun learning about AHK. You can do much more with it than I imagined. Feel free to post questions, comments, suggestions and share what you come up with. -Enjoy Submitter The Papaw Submitted 05/25/2022 Category Third-party Apps and Plugins  

np, thought a AHK script would go in the AHK thread...deleted it, sorry 'bout that

Posted copy here for others to play with: The Game Zone.ahk

Here is want I wound up with (still tweaking). I had no idea you could do so much as easily as you can with AHK. Definitely will be using much more in the future. Thanks again Joe for the support The Menu: Showing a confirmation prompt:

I've got it all working pretty good now, doing artwork and layout. Will post screenshot when I get it done. Thanks for all the tips. I had done got on a roll before trying the program , will look at it later..

I'm making progress (one of the few youtube videos that is actually not affiliate crap yet.. ) and got one clickable, also found an old program to make AHK GUI's called SmartGUI. I might see what is does. Here's a copy of of it if you're interested in playing with it. smartgui.zip

I got some png's working in it, now I am trying to figure out how to make them clickable, something to do with a "A g-label such as gMySubroutine may be listed in the control's options. This would cause the MySubroutine label to be launched automatically whenever the user clicks the picture.". -quoted from autohotkey.com Just getting things going, and I will probably find different images and maybe change layout, maybe 2 x 2 square instead of single line, maybe get rid of the buttons once I figure out how to make the images clickable???? Here is what I got so far:

I've gotten busy and just getting back to playing with this. Been tinkering with AHK a bit this morning. Looking for a way to add an image to each menu now if you can, never tried before

Yes Sir, that is exactly what I am gonna be trying to do. I don't see a reason to use the /f switch as it LB appears to be closing well (at least with v12.12, I know these things may change with updates sometimes) Something I am not sure about is when LB/BB is opened, then closed, then re-opened again, it tends to run a bit slower if the PC isn't re-booted for some reason. Like maybe memory isn't cleared 100% from the previous run or something. Could be a windows thing, I really don't know. I think I can pull it off with bat or AHK I was wondering if something in Visual Studio or even something else might work and look better if you create it with a cool icon and make it an exe or something? Rather than having 5-10 script files. But never done anything with VS before. I assume you would use some type of invoke in it??

Thanks @neil9000 Here is what I am up too. My master Launchbox rig is getting pretty large and most themes are really dragging now on the slower PC's around the house. I am thinking about making multiple instances of LB on them, say one for just Arcade, another for the older platforms and maybe another for the more modern platforms, then creating a batch file or maybe some type of Windows app in virtual studio or something to run first, allowing the user to pick the one they want, then when they exit it, take them back to the app or bat file to change to a different one. Even thought about just creating one instance of LB to run first with only the different instances of LB and let it run the batch files to kill and re-open the different instance????

I created a batch file to kill LB, just curious if this is a safe way to do it or will I end up with corrupted files over time. This is what I am using: @echo off taskkill /im LaunchBox.exe It appears to be working okay with the few tests I've done, including saving the backups. If there is a safer way, please do share.

The saving process that occurs after LaunchBox or Big Box closes should be significantly faster is a nice addition. Very helpful when doing maintenance in LB and theming as much as you open and close LB/BB. The PictureViewer was visually updated with added context regarding what type of image you are looking at is a nice touch as well. Nice improvements

Some great ideas, but you have to submit them to bitbucket or they are never considered.

The bezel project is an interesting idea, but as others have shared, I think more information should be provided. Is it going to utilize a single platform bezel for each platform and use that in all the games in that platform or download and use the individual theme bezel for each game. Will you be able to choose between the two? @Jason Carr said it would only be RA and Mame which is understandable, as that is what the Bezel Project is geared towards. I think more info should be provided for other things on the ballet as well. Like #4, Cool feature, but BETTER support for NAS stored media really needs to be worked on now! Nothing works other than deleting media. Will that be fixed / improved?