Will LB have per-game themes like HS in the near future?

[kiroscell]

Hello,

I'm a HS user wanting to move over to LB mainly because of it's simplicity and and frequent developer updates. So far I'm using Big Box with City hunter and the Retro theme but as a HS user I'm seeing some pretty big features that I feel are needed especially for cabinet setups. Even though the themes and the cinematic intros look nice, I'm seeing that there's really no way to differentiate your systems. The only differentiating factor is that the game clear logos look different. I have about 6 systems setup in LB (still testing) and since every system uses the same theme everything kind of looks the same. If you're not sure what I mean, check the video below and you'll notice that every system has an intro video and most games have a them of their own to differentiate everything.

I know that the devs are aware that something like this is missing, my question is, are there any talks or plans to get a feature like this implemented? As  a HS user I can honestly say that LB is a better piece of software; it's faster and user-friendly which is always good. But at the same time, as a HS user I find it very hard to switch without some way to differentiate my systems and  games. Yes HS is a slower and more outdated software but if I'm starting to think that it has such steep pc requirements because it's able to do per-game themes at a decent speed if your cpu is up to date. If there is some way to do this today then please let me know;  even if per-game themes aren't avail like in HS is there some way to maybe add a custom background so when I enter Sega Genesis I see a Sonic background for all games or something like that?

[Maddoc1007]

@kiroscell Not all themes use  a single background video some themes let the user use Background theme video from  @BakerMan @Nyny77, @viking through download platform video in LaunchBox and @CriticalCid through http://emumovies.com/files/file/2102-unified-widescreen-platform-video-themes-a-c/ and others or platform videos, such as the default theme and other themes in the download section does by turning on background videos in BigBox options/videos Turn on platform background video, as well as background ordinary game videos  by turning on background game videos in BigBox/options Turn on game background video , in order to use hyperspin style game videos though you would need to convert all your hyperspin game themes to video and name them after the games.

Edited February 11, 2017 by Maddoc1007

[kiroscell]

Maddoc this loos really interesting. Do you know if there's a video of this in action?

[kiroscell]

Do I just drop he .mp4 in the themes folder?

[DOS76]

If it is a game video it goes in the video folder under the specific platform name if it is a platform video it goes in the platform folder inside of the video folder. For the Arcade section CriticalCid has video versions of all of the arcade themes from HS

[DOS76]

and over at EmuMovies Riffman has NES ones up on their FTP

[kiroscell]

I put the .mp4 in videos\systemname\themes and enabled background videos in critical zone theme but I don't see the video playing in big box. Any Idea what I'm doing wrong?

[DOS76]

if they are just game play videos the path should be videos\platform no themes involved if you have the other platform videos of the game play it will overwrite them

[SentaiBrad]

 

[Maddoc1007]

@kiroscell Go to the downloads section Themes and look through the themes and find one you like, most have video of what the themes look like.  Also remember when placing platform videos in the themes folder inside LaunchBox they go Theme/WhateverTheme/Video/Platforms and the videos themselves must be named the same as your platforms, videos placed here will override normal platform videos.  Or you can place them in LaunchBox/Videos/Platforms instead.  Game Videos must go inside each Platforms specific folder such as Arcade, Nintendo etc, game videos must be named after the games.

Criticalzone that comes with LaunchBox doesn't need background video turned on they must be turned off, to show up in the space CriticalCid has created for them.  Only themes such as the default theme and others in the download section that use full background platform and game video need background platform and game video for showing the videos full-screen.

[kiroscell]

In @sentaibrad video I see the Mame games all have themes for the games like HS. How is that done?

 

 

[neil9000]

7 hours ago, kiroscell said:

In @sentaibrad video I see the Mame games all have themes for the games like HS. How is that done?

 

 

They are all available on emumovies if you have a premium emumovies account you can add your details in launchbox and it will download them when you import. If you have already imported you need to highlight all your arcade games with ctrl a then go to tools/download metadata and images wizard. If you don't have emumovies premium can get them direct from the emumovies site but are restricted to 1.5gb of downloads per day. If you download from the site you will have to unzip to launchbox/videos/name of platform.

[kiroscell]

Hello @neil9000   I do have a premium Emumovies account and thanks for assisting. I've been doing HS for awhile so I have about 500GB worth of images/themes/videos downloaded already. I have a two part question.

 

1. Since I have these themes downloaded and working in HS is there any way to get them working in LB/BB? I already have all my game vids and box art that I pre-downloaded working in LB simply by changing around the vid/front boxart folder paths.

2. In LB, when downloading metadata and media there are lots of different to select. Which option should I select to get the HS themes like I saw in the video above. Thanks again!

[DOS76]

1 No they are the same visually but CritiacalCids are just recorded MP4's of the HS themes so they will 100% not work at all.

2 I don't remember if Cids videos are available through LB or if they are only on EM. I'm thinking its the latter but I'm really not sure

Edited February 11, 2017 by DOS76

[neil9000]

11 minutes ago, DOS76 said:

1 No they are the same visually but CritiacalCids are just recorded MP4's of the HS themes so they will 100% not work at all.

2 I don't remember if Cids videos are available through LB or if they are only on EM. I'm thinking its the latter but I'm really not sure

Yep, what @DOS76 said. I don't have emumovies premium so wasn't sure If they were available while scraping or not. 

[kiroscell]

Hey

@DOS76  I think you're right. I just tested updating one of my  games and I selected the only option with 'theme' in the name but nothing happened.

[kiroscell]

I checked out the unified widescreen theme project but those seem to just be intro videos. Where on emumovies can I find these ( sorry for all the questions >.<).

[DOS76]

Lets tag @CriticalCidand hopefully he can tell you everything you need to know

[neil9000]

http://emumovies.com/files/category/2032-themed-videos/

[CriticalCid]

Alright, first of all you can’t use your HyperSpin themes .zip files because LaunchBox doesn’t support them and most likely never will. You will need the .mp4 video themes from EmuMovies instead.

You can get everything either directly through the LaunchBox import wizard or from EmuMovies itself.

 

Get them through LaunchBox (the comfortable way):

Make sure that you have an EmuMovies premium account and that you have entered your login information in LaunchBox. You can do that under "Tools -> Options -> Search -> EmuMovies"

Game Theme Videos:

Go to the platform of your choice and select all games with CTRL+A. Then go to "Tools -> Download Metadata and Media". Click through the wizard and deselect all media types except “BigBox Cinematix Theme Video” in the first media selection screen and “Video - Theme” in the second one; both of them can be found on the bottom of each list. Click on “Yes, but do not replace any existing fields or media” and let LB download them.

Open BigBox and go to "Options -> Videos" and check "Prioritize Game Theme Videos"

Be aware that just very few platforms have video themes at the moment. But at least most of the arcade systems and the SNES should be pretty much covered.

 

Platform Theme Videos:

Click on "Tools –> Download Platform Theme Videos". It’s pretty self-explanatory. You can choose between various theme styles and even watch previews of them. Check the checkboxes of the platforms you want themes for and click on OK to download them.

 

Get them from EmuMovies (the manual way):

The best way would be to download them from the FTP because the website only offers the MAME and platform themes at the moment. Therefore, if you want to get everything you have to use the FTP.

Game Theme Videos:

They are located in:

"/Official/Video Themes (HD)"

To use them in LaunchBox you have to put them in this folder:

"\LaunchBox\Videos\PLATFORMNAME\Theme"

If the platform of your choice doesn’t already have a theme folder in it you have to create it manually.

 

Platform Theme Videos:

They are in the same folder as the normal intro videos:

"/Official/Platform Videos"

You want to get the ones with the (Unified) in the filename. To use them in LaunchBox you have to put them in this folder:

"\LaunchBox\Videos\Platforms"

The videos HAVE to be named exactly like your platform is named in LaunchBox.