theme CriticalZone / CriticalZone - BlueBox

[CriticalCid]

What Brad said. Venting about that issue in my theme thread won’t get it fixed any faster. I hope that this discussion ends now in this thread and gets continued in the beta thread instead.

[GreenGriffon]

48 minutes ago, y2j420 said:

My attitude isn't "shitty" when a paid product becomes broken with a limited window to have a fix done.  Reporting the bug via the program's reporting feature has resulted in 0 comments or updates from the program creator.  Commenting in the beta thread results in the program creator giving minor care/comments on the issue.

Hijacking this thread because you don't feel like you're getting your issue resolved fast enough is completely inappropriate.

If you've already reported the bug, then you do what the rest of us have to do in these situations....wait patiently for it to get resolved.

[SentaiBrad]

if you make a thread, we'll even try and help out as best as we can. On our private discord, Zom, Cid, Derek and I are trying to figure out whats going on and what it could be, so we're still even trying to figure it out. Lets talk about it elsewhere though and give Cid his thread back.

[Rincewind]

Great work on this @CriticalCid the screenshots look awesome. I'm unable to give it a spin till the weekend but wanted to check, will this be added as a default in the next LaunchBox update?

[CriticalCid]

CritcalZone V2 released!

 

It’s finally here. V2 features a load of new stuff, so better check out the extensive changelog to see what is new / has changed:

v2.0 - LB v7.11 (08/14/2017)
- General: An official blue color variant of CriticalZone called "CriticalZone - BlueBox" is now available in the LaunchBox forums download section. Huge thanks to @SentaiBrad for creating the background video
- General: "CriticalZone" and "CriticalZone - BlueBox" are now coming in 3 different versions:
	Default: CriticalZone will use a mixture of video loops and Fanart images as backgrounds for different Views; just like all previous CriticalZone 1.x versions
	BackgroundVideoOnly: All Views, except the TextList Views, will only use video loops as backgrounds
	BackgroundFanartOnly: All Views will only use Fanart images as backgrounds
- General: The whole theme code was tidied up and restructured. Also almost every single element is now labeled with a comment. If you want to edit something in the theme it will be now much easier to navigate through it
- General: CriticalZone now has a complete new engine for the background videos which was created by @eatkinola (Huge thanks for this)! CriticalZone now supports:
	- Multiple background videos and randomized shuffle between them
	- Individual background videos for all Platforms, Platform Categories and Playlists
- For more info about the new video engine and how to set it up check the "Guide - How to set up your own background videos.pdf" file under "CriticalZone\Videos\Backgrounds\"
- Added: "Vertical Wheel 3" games View was added. It's just a slightly modified version of the Vertical Wheel 2 games View and offers additional fullscreen support for 16:9 vidoes and also automatically fades out the Wheel.
- Added: "Vertical Wheel 4" games View was added.
- Added: Support for user star ratings was added. Every View now displays the user rating as one of the ESRB-like banners (another huge thanks to @eatkinola for helping me with it) 
- Removed: The Theme folder now only contains the .xaml files which differ from the LaunchBox Default theme in order to keep the file structure more clean
- Updated: The "BackgroundVideo" folder was renamed to just "Backgrounds"
- Updated: The "Background.mp4" video file was renamed to "In The Deep.mp4" and moved to "CriticalZone\Videos\Backgrounds\Default\"
- Updated: A Date/Time widget was added for the following Views: "Platform Wheel 3", "Platform Wheel 4" and "Vertical Wheel 2" games Views. It's also featured in the new "Vertical Wheel 3" games View as well
- Updated: The "Vertical Wheel 2" games View now additionally shows the box art and platform clear logo. All elements over the video will also automatically fade in and out now
- Updated: The "Platform Wheel 3" and "Platform Wheel 4" Views are now showing the clear logo of the currently active Platforms Category
- Updated: The "Platform Wheel 3" games View now has a glass bar behind the wheel and also shows the Title, Release Year and Manufacturer of the selected platform. They will autoamtically fade in and out just like the wheel
- Updated: A clock was added to the following games Views: "CoverFlow", "Coverflow With Details" and "Horizontal Wheel 3"
- Updated: A glass bar was added behind the game title and clock in both CoverFlow Views
- Updated: The game title color in the "Horizontal Wheel 3" games View was changed to white/gray in order to unify the look with the CoverFlow Views and to distinguish it from the clock
- Updated: The empty space under the Wheel in the "Horizontal Wheel 2" games View was removed to make more room for the video and to unify its look and feel with the "Horizontal Wheel 3" games View 
- Updated: The "Horizontal Wheel 3" games View now shows the platform clear logo. The banner images were moved inside the Details glass bar in order to make room for it
- Updated: The "Horizontal Wheel 3" games View now displays the game Details dynamically like the other Views
- Updated: The "Horizontal Wheel 3" games View now features custom transition effects
- Updated: The transition effect between the highlighted and non-highlighted wheel images should be smoother now
- Updated: The sizes of the box art and video elements in the "Vertical Wheel 1" and "Text List with Details" games Views were slightly enlarged
- Updated: All Text Lists and Vertical Wheels now take exactly 25% of the screen width in order to unify the look & feel across the whole theme
- Updated: The opacity values of the metadata glass bars were increased. They appear darker now
- Updated: Slight performance improvements by removing some unnecessary legacy code
- Updated: Various other small changes like slightly different background fade values, glass bar sizes, element positions, font settings, etc.

The new main feature is without a doubt the new video engine created by @eatkinola. CriticalZone supports now the following:

- Multiple background videos and randomized shuffle between them

- Individual background videos for all Platforms, Platform Categories and Playlists

Check the “Guide - How to set up your own background videos.pdf” file inside the theme folder for further instructions!

 

CriticalZone also comes now in various alternative versions:

- CritcalZoneV2 - BlueBox: A blue color variant of CriticalZoneV2. It features blue texts instead of green and has a different Default background created by @SentaiBrad

- BackgroundVideoOnly: All Views, except the TextList Views, will only use video loops as backgrounds. Also available as BlueBox version.

- BackgroundFanartOnly: All Views will only use Fanart images as backgrounds. Also available as BlueBox version.

The default version will probably be bundled directly with LaunchBox like always and should be included in the next LB beta. For the impatient ones I’ve uploaded the default version to the download section as well.

 

IMPORTANT: CriticalZone V2 requires the latest beta version of LaunchBox v7.11

 

There’s also a .dll file in the theme’s plugin folder which you have to unblock first in its properties!

Go to the “Plugins” folder inside the CriticalZoneV2 folder and right-click on the file “Ao.Bigbox.Themer.dll”. Choose Properties -> Click on “Unblock” at the bottom of the window. Close the window.
 

Known issues:

- The star rating won't show up sometimes when you jump too quickly from one game to the next.

- The theme doesn’t look right if Windows is used with higher DPI settings than 100%

 
And finally some screenshots:

[GreenGriffon]

Fantastic! Thanks so much Cid.

Looking forward to checking it out this evening.

[ALIE]

Awesome gonna try them now.

[ALIE]

@CriticalCid the default version of 2.0 works like a charm i do have one issue but i guess that is what is called dpi scaling issue? Clock and name/details isn't showing correctly unfortunately.

But the other versions including Blue i can't switch platforme views? Not sure if this is by default but only horizontal view i think the one that is called 2 works.  

Edited August 15, 2017 by ALIE

[kmoney]

Great job with the updates on the new theme @CriticalCid! I am really liking the new blue scheme as well as the different views.

[CriticalCid]

Yeah that’s a DPI issue. I tested the fix that @Maddoc1007 has posted but I couldn’t find a way to make it play nicely with the performance fix for scrolling notes with long texts. So it was either fixing the text for the few users with high DPI scaling or get an overall smooth performance for everybody else. In the end I’ve decided to just leave everything as is and wait for a native solution by @Jason Carr

Regarding your Platform View issue; I can't replicate it on my end. All versions are working perfectly fine for me. Have you tried to restart BigBox and/or your PC?

[neil9000]

I can switch views just fine in the blue video version.

[Rincewind]

Great work on this @CriticalCid the screenshots look awesome. I'm unable to give it a spin till the weekend but wanted to check, will this be added as a default in the next LaunchBox update?

[ALIE]

8 hours ago, neil9000 said:

I can switch views just fine in the blue video version.

Gonna give it another spin today. 

[CriticalCid]

4 hours ago, Rincewind said:

Great work on this @CriticalCid the screenshots look awesome. I'm unable to give it a spin till the weekend but wanted to check, will this be added as a default in the next LaunchBox update?

Honestly, I don’t know that yet either as I'm still waiting on a response from @Jason Carr. Ultimately it will come down on how he thinks about bundling @eatkinola's plug-in with LaunchBox but personally I think it won’t be a problem.

[Jason Carr]

1 hour ago, CriticalCid said:

Honestly, I don’t know that yet either as I'm still waiting on a response from @Jason Carr. Ultimately it will come down on how he thinks about bundling @eatkinola's plug-in with LaunchBox but personally I think it won’t be a problem.

Should be perfectly fine as we can distribute the plugin specifically for and with the theme, as long as we have @eatkinola's permission.

Gonna be checking this out in the live stream today guys! As always, huge thanks to @CriticalCid. Streaming today at 9:30 AM PST.

[CriticalCid]

There you hear it guys

 

I also have an additional info for you. For some reasons I thought that the plug-in system was introduced in LB 7.11, that's why I made the note about requiring the latest beta...

So theoretically CriticalZone V2 should work in 7.10 without any problems. I just wanted to let you know that in case you haven’t tried it out yet because you are still on the latest 7.10 build.

EDIT: Just got the confirmation that it won't work on 7.10 and you have to be indeed on the latest 7.11 beta version to use it!

Edited August 15, 2017 by CriticalCid

[xyzmusik]

Wow this is awsome espacilly the blue theme with background video only on all views.  Nice work Cid !!!!

[imdavid555]

Oh man! I can't wait to try this out this weekend! Awesome job Cid  

[zetec-s-joe]

V2 looks great,any chance of adding Grila's DPI Fixes?

[CriticalCid]

17 hours ago, CriticalCid said:

Yeah that’s a DPI issue. I tested the fix that @Maddoc1007 has posted but I couldn’t find a way to make it play nicely with the performance fix for scrolling notes with long texts. So it was either fixing the text for the few users with high DPI scaling or get an overall smooth performance for everybody else. In the end I’ve decided to just leave everything as is and wait for a native solution by @Jason Carr