Hyperspin VS Launchbox - pros and cons?

[snoopybooh]

I know guys, this is just another one  "oh no, another HS vs LB topic"... sorry about that! It's not meant to be a Frontend-war topic, I just would like to know the big cons and pros of HS/LB  according to you. I'm not in the mood to configure another front-end and HS also seems quite annoying to be configured. I'm quite satisfied with LB, so don't worry about that!

However I was very impressed to see some HS themes and how smooth and solid seems to be its wheel menu. Thematic themes and even wheels can be also used in LB so it's not really a big deal, but It feels like HS uses multi-themes and in games menu you can use customized graphics to show gameplay the video (if I'm not wrong). Those seem to be the 2 features that I would envy to HS. I really like the idea to be able to use different themes for different platforms and especially to use customized graphics to show gameplay videos. I'm fine with using cinematic theme videos for platforms, but I don't think there's need to download cinematic gameplay videos when you could achieve that with customized graphics. There are too many games to download some many cinematic gameplay videos, it would be easier to achieve that with customized graphics and multi-themes so you can just use your gameplay videos and change the way are being displayed in the Frontend.

By the way, are you planning to add such features in upcoming LB updates?It would be awesome!:)

Merry Xmas to all by the way!

[SentaiBrad]

So talking about performance, Big Box uses a much heavier and much more complicated engine to power it's self. That's not meant to be a dig at HS or anyones choices, they made the best decision they could how ever many years ago, and this is where we just decided to make the decision. So Big Box performance can drag on lower end systems, and the larger the library the slower they can get. Performance is always a concern and always being improved, LB7 saw a gigantic increase in performance. There are also some options dealing with the wheel (like the wait time), and with performance climbing I think that can be something we can match in our own way (we can never be a different product, so I say in our own way). Also, the themes in HS are now videos in Big Box and LaunchBox. @CriticalCid is directly porting a ton of them, and @BakerMan used to create some for HS and now creates them for us, and brought over his whole library. Past that, our actual theme engine is just wildly different. I believe they used a Flash engine, SWF, and we use a more code oriented Microsoft solution called XAML. @CriticalCid has also been creating some of the better and best themes so far. There are tons of themes in the download section by lots of people as well, so there's lots to choose from and I believe the idea is to get downloading integrated in to LB. So all in all, it's a little hard to compare us, and what they did have we have access to in the form of video's now because the community willed it to happen, and they made it happen. Big Box can also show platform videos, and game videos, when scrolling through surrounded by the actual theme. So EmuMovies provides all of the gameplay footage currently, and that's downloaded inside of LB with an EM Premium account. Some views and some themes do different things with the different videos, how it's displayed and used, and some themes or views don't utilize the game details pane either. So everything you are asking might be done differently, but is currently achieved in Big Box, 100%.

There are tons of videos and tutorials on the matter, as well as tons of threads. Search some keywords here and look around. Also check out our demo or Big Box related videos on the channel, as well as the Tutorials Playlist for more help. Not all of the tutorials are system related, there are feature specific tutorials too, like EmuMovies.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSIht6UXIEXIgz4eXAEShxA/videos

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6pTDaHeAz-WMcNURVPU-1xLN_TVpT3FB

 

[snoopybooh]

I'm afraid I didn't make quite clear my point of view. I've already checked all of themes and frontend options in LB and I've already buyed a LB license since I thought it was the best choice among all of the others FEs and according to my needs. LB seems to be way more updated, powerful, easy to use and with a great community. I'm grown-up and unfortunately I don't have enough time to spend a lot of time to configure a Frontend. That's why HS couldn't never be my choice.

22 hours ago, SentaiBrad said:

Big Box uses a much heavier and much more complicated engine to power it's self.

That's a good point and that's one of the reasons why I chose LB, but I just don't understand why such a powerful FE can't provide a quite simple and responsive layout such as I saw in HS videos. Bartop and Minimanl HD themes are somewhat closes to the main HS layout, but it's not enough. Actually it's not about being similar HS since it's not like they invented a wheel system or those kind of graphics layouts. Just by way of examples, if you have a look at this HS video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4q4aazS-OE  you can clearly see how the wheel disappears after selecting a game or platform and how different platforms uses different themes. Also the most interested part is when the user browses the Snes and Genesis roms and  every simple gameplay footage (so it's not a cinematic gameplay video)  is being shown with a specific platform layout plus and image of the relative game cover. That makes gameplay videos somehow 'cinematic' even if they're not. I just you didn't include such options and features yet, but I hope you will think about include them in upcoming releases.

Thanks anyway for your reply @SentaiBrad. It's good to know that there's such a great community here that's what makes LB great

 

[Thatman84]

As this is pro's and con's, there are some serious pro's to LB. So many tick box features you don't find anywhere else, constant development, easy setup. 

Themeing and artwork will come, (so much has come in the last few months)  I expect code is Jason's artistic side so like most people he will take cues from the community and if people want he he will oblige as proven.

HS and LB are just different beasts  with different looks. Community artist's push the look's and dev's enable it.