Help with new theme

[RetroAsylum]

So I've been playing around a bit with a new theme and there are a few things that would really be great but I can't seem to figure out how to do it.

So I've got the video and the scrolling notes as well as the cover flow positioned and working, but where I'm struggling is the left part under the video (see mockup images). I want the info to be 1. Clear Logo. 2. Info (note color of text and size is different than the fillable information) 3. The game score would be great 4. (Bottom row) Rating and "Playmode" using images instead of Text. (Also would love to have toggles to show optional requirements for the game like SNES mouse or Nunchuck or Paddles on A2600 etc.

I'll start easy though... can anyone help me figure out how to stack the info at least before getting into the more complicated things. Is there a way to define what bits of info is shown. Also can the "Released On" be changed to just "Released" and use date code instead of full name? e.g. Use 8/1/1993 instead of Tuesday August 1, 1993.

Thanks in advance!

[Eirulan]

I'm afraid I can't help you with your specific problem, but as a tipp, do you edit the XAMLs in a text editor or do you use Visual Studio / Blend?

In VS/Blend you can position your elements, like grids, dockpanels, stackpanels and so on much more conveniently. Maybe this help. Also, as for the actual information, you have to rely on the Bindings @Jason Carr provides. I don't know if there is a list which Bindings are available and what they are named, but I guess he can give you this info.

One question from my side:

HOW did you get the "notes" text auto-scrolling? I tried this myself with no luck.

 

Cheers...

 

[Jason Carr]

That looks really nice @RetroAsylum! Make sure you're using the beta version (or wait until we release the official 6.9 later this week), and you'll see a new Documentation.pdf file show up in the Themes folder. That should really help you out a lot and give you full flexibility with the details.

@Eirulan The text auto scrolling is a new feature in the beta releases.

[goofers]

RetroAsylum please release this theme bro looks nice

[ALIE]

concept looks nice good luck to you.

[RetroAsylum]

Thanks everyone

@Eirulan I had a little bit of a problem getting auto scrolling to work myself but here is what I did, as instructed in the .pdf file that Jason includes in beta. 

First: Add: 

xmlns:controls="clr-namespace:BigBox.Controls;assembly=BigBox"

in the opening UserControl tag.

Next: Paste this code into the place you have defined for the text to be:

<Canvas x:Name="NotesCanvas" ClipToBounds="True" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch"> <controls:ScrollableTextBlock Name="ScrollingNotes" Text="{Binding Path=Notes}" FontFamily="Calibri" Foreground="White" TextWrapping="Wrap" Width="{Binding ElementName=NotesCanvas, Path=ActualWidth}" ScrollBeginDelay="10" ScrollSpeed="3" ScrollAutoReverse="True" ScrollEndDelay="10" ReverseScrollSpeed="0.5" ScrollDirection="Up" /> </Canvas>

NOTE: This is where I had issues, only because without defining the height of the cell you are putting it in, it was showing as a TINY single string and wasn't wrapping so this code below is what I used personally to make it work, you can compare my code with the code above to see what was changed.

<Canvas x:Name="NotesCanvas" Grid.Row="1" ClipToBounds="True" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Visibility="{Binding ScrollingNotesVisibility}"><controls:ScrollableTextBlock Name="ScrollingNotes" Text="{Binding Path=SelectedGame.Notes}" FontSize="24" FontFamily="Calibri" Foreground="White" TextWrapping="Wrap" Width="{Binding ElementName=NotesCanvas, Path=ActualWidth}" ScrollBeginDelay="3" ScrollSpeed="1" ScrollAutoReverse="True" ScrollEndDelay="10" ReverseScrollSpeed="0.5" ScrollDirection="Up"/> </Canvas>

I hope that helps... it just takes a bit of tinkering, this is my first dabble in Visual Basic (at all) so if I can figure it out so can you, and it sounds like Jason is working on making it even easier too. 

@Jason Carr I noticed that when the scroll auto reverses... it doesn't reset and scroll again. I don't know if that was on purpose or if I'm missing some code or something but it would be cool if it would just "reset" once it reversed and just keep doing it like a loop. 

[Jason Carr]

Thanks Retro. The scrolling should be scrolling endlessly; I'll take a look to see if I have a bug there. By the way, this isn't Visual Basic; it's a XAML markup for WPF. Visual Basic is a separate thing entirely, and LaunchBox/Big Box are coded in C#, which is also part of .NET, but it isn't Visual Basic. Doesn't matter much but I thought I'd clarify.

[kmoney]

That is a very nice looking theme...looking forward to the release!

[RetroAsylum]

LOL... Thanks for clarifying Jason, you just proved my point though. I clearly don't know what I'm doing and I was able to get it working...