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RetroFresh - Big Box Theme


faeran

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Hi Guys,

Started using LaunchBox a few weeks ago, and after setting it up and playing around with it I realized I couldn't find a theme for Big Box that I wanted to use, so I decided to try my hand at making my own. The only problem was that I didn't know that XAML existed until last week, so it took some learning to get a grasp of it, but I think I managed to learn enough to get the desired theme that I was looking for.

I thought I'd share my work, just in case someone else may find the theme useful as well. The theme itself is inspired by a UI I once saw in a Simply Austin video about a year ago, however I took a different approach while creating it.

The theme was designed to add as little overhead as possible, while giving a clean and simplistic view of the content. To do this I decided on not adding any images at all to the theme, and instead used XAML to build all the elements. When zipped, the entire theme comes out under 300KB.

 

Download Theme
Click here to download RetroFresh from the download's section

 

Installation Instructions

  1. Extract RetroFresh.zip into the LaunchBox/Themes folder.
  2. Go into the RetroFresh/Fonts folder and install the 'SF Atarian System.ttf' font
  3. Open Big Box, go to Options/Views, select the RetroFresh theme.

 

The views I made are as follows:

Platform Wheel View
This platform view was designed to get out of the way of the full screen platform videos made by all the wonderful people contributing to LaunchBox. The platform videos are the focus here, as the wheel's transparent background let's the video through.

RetroFresh.PlatformList.Example1.jpg

RetroFresh.PlatformList.Example2.jpg

Game Vertical Wheel View 1
This game view let's the box art and game video take center stage, while the blurred background image allows for the transparent UI elements to take on its color property.

RetroFresh.GameList.WheelLeft.jpg

Game Vertical Wheel View 2
This game view is the same as the first, except the wheel is on the right.

RetroFresh.GameList.WheelRight.jpg

Game List View
This game view substitutes the wheel for a text list. This view will help on lower end systems, while the essence of theme remains intact.

RetroFresh.GameList.TextList.jpg


Video Demonstration

 


If anyone finds any issues, please let me know.

RetroFresh.zip

Edited by faeran
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Where did you get the system videos? Those are amazing. The theme looks great too, but not quite as clean as I'd hope with the videos I have.

Also in the game views, the video is playing in the background instead of the box designated for it? EDIT: Nevermind, fixed that. Thanks! I just need help with the platform videos that you have. :) Thank you for the great work.

Edited by hawkguy
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54 minutes ago, hawkguy said:

Where did you get the system videos? Those are amazing. The theme looks great too, but not quite as clean as I'd hope with the videos I have.

Also in the game views, the video is playing in the background instead of the box designated for it? EDIT: Nevermind, fixed that. Thanks! I just need help with the platform videos that you have. :) Thank you for the great work.

The Platform Videos used in @faeran's theme are from the Big Box Cinematix Project. Here's a quick video I made on how to download Platform and Game Themes from within Launch Box. There's no commentary, but you should be able to follow along...

Also, you can follow and watch all of the themes on my channel here...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxNgRrtLSth94xOHNUHqUfw

Hopefully that helps brotherman.

@faeran Lovin the Platform view. Any chance of incorporating "Vertical Wheel 3" view from @CriticalCid's theme?

You'll see the view I'm talking about at 1:17...

Anyhow, thanks for the theme... Looks wonderful!

 

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7 hours ago, BakerMan said:

 

@faeran Lovin the Platform view. Any chance of incorporating "Vertical Wheel 3" view from @CriticalCid's theme?

You'll see the view I'm talking about at 1:17...

Anyhow, thanks for the theme... Looks wonderful!

 

Thanks @BakerMan.  A horizontal view is definitely something I can work on for the next update.

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Hey man, this is by far my favorite theme yet. I noticed that some platforms seem to use the Clear Logo instead of the boxart. I can't tell if it's something on my end or intentional, but was just wondering. I do have the images set to boxart. Thanks!

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2 hours ago, NintendudeCT said:

Hey man, this is by far my favorite theme yet. I noticed that some platforms seem to use the Clear Logo instead of the boxart. I can't tell if it's something on my end or intentional, but was just wondering. I do have the images set to boxart. Thanks!

Thanks @NintendudeCT,

Try this:

  • Open up LaunchBox.
  • Open up each system you are having issues with and then click on the Image Type dropdown menu, and choose Boxes.

temp.PNG

Now open up BigBox and let me know if that fixed your problem.

 

 

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7 hours ago, faeran said:

Thanks @NintendudeCT,

Try this:

  • Open up LaunchBox.
  • Open up each system you are having issues with and then click on the Image Type dropdown menu, and choose Boxes.

temp.PNG

Now open up BigBox and let me know if that fixed your problem.

 

 

Thank you so much! I had no idea that the Launchbox view affected Bigbox, so that's also really good to know. Sorry about that. Now I can enjoy your theme even more.

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