Multiwheels Proposal

[DJQuad]

I'm going to attempt to explain this as promised. This is gonna be a hella long description with lots of explanation so please bear with me.

Nested filters, playlists, multilevel wheels, categories, and a few other terms are getting so confused and overlapped. I originally brought up nested filters and that sort of morphed into what we have now when the original intention was simply nested wheels. When I used HyperSpin this was a highly-requested feature.

See http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forums/topic/15075-support-multi-sub-wheels-on-main-menu/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPntYy8Bayg.

What I’m suggesting in detail would solve a lot of the confusing terms as well as give people complete options for customization. I’ll  start by explaining a few examples of what the end results would be. 

1. The default – platforms, then all games under that platform.
2. Subcategories – subcategories, then games under that.

(this is where multilevels come into play for non-casual users who want more customization)

3. Nintendo, Nintendo Classics, games (regardless of platform)
4. Consoles, Atari, Atari 5200, games
5. Arcade, shooters, games (specific games specified by their game id #)
6. Donkey Kong, games (specific games specified by their game id #, AND a text query of "kong")
7. Favorites, games (all favorited games)
8. Arcade, Nintendo, games (all arcade games not on consoles)
9. Early 80s games, games (a query on all games from 1980-1983)

Sounds complicated? It’s not. Think of every platform, category, game, etc. as its own separate query as if they were in a database. Whether it’s a top-level wheel, a 2nd level wheel, or an 8th level wheel for that matter, it’s all about querying.

I’m calling this UI a “wheel-builder” for lack of a better term, but I foresee this looking like sort of a cross between a tree view and a visual SQL query builder. I suppose an interface like https://www.pgadmin.org/docs/dev/gqb.html for those unfamiliar with creating queries “by hand”.

I really feel like this would solve so much of the confusion meanwhile giving people complete flexibility of how they want games in their library presented. Just like we have files on our computers in folders and subfolders, our games shouldn’t be any different.

Your thoughts and suggestions are welcomed.

[DJQuad]

Any thoughts Jason?

[CriticalCid]

Hey Quad, just a small tip. It's always better to tag a person directly if you want to make sure that he definitely sees it. Just like this: @Jason Carr

[DJQuad]

Hehe thank you

I'd love your input too. Do you think this type of restructure would mess up any themes?

[CriticalCid]

I don’t know why it should mess up any theme. It would probably work in BigBox just like the current platform categories solution, only with more levels.

The only problem I see is that themes would need to show something like a path of the currently selected branch because otherwise it could become very confusing to navigate through all these ramifications.

[Jason Carr]

@DJQuad This all makes sense, though to be completely honest it still does seem more complicated than necessary to me. I'm sure we'll get these features in eventually, but especially now that the poll is out I don't know that it will be a focus for the immediate future. My mind can always be changed by thoughts of the community though, of course.

[Lordmonkus]

This was what I had envisioned when the whole idea behind Nested Filters got talked about. The ability to create sub wheels with whatever name we wanted much like a folder tree on your hard drive.

[DOS76]

I thought that nested filters was going to be this to and not what it turned out to be I'd definitely like to see multi-level wheels make it in.

[kmoney]

I agree...this is what I had thought nested filters was going to be as well when I first heard nested filters. I think a lot of users would like and benefit from this. I know over in the HS community they have been wanting this feature for years. Sub wheels was the first thing that came to mind when I first heard of nested filters being implemented in BigBox. Do not get me wrong, I am thankful for what we have,its just different than what I thought it was going to be.

[DJQuad]

8 hours ago, kmoney said:

I agree...this is what I had thought nested filters was going to be as well when I first heard nested filters. I think a lot of users would like and benefit from this. I know over in the HS community they have been wanting this feature for years. Sub wheels was the first thing that came to mind when I first heard of nested filters being implemented in BigBox. Do not get me wrong, I am thankful for what we have,its just different than what I thought it was going to be.

Yep same here. In fact the nested filters interface seems perfect for building the multiwheels. I thought this was going to be in the poll as it was mentioned during the live stream, but hopefully it'll be in the next poll.

[kpop]

this is what i thought was going to be implemented as nested filters also, this would be a great feature to have.  

[Jason Carr]

I see; I hear you guys. My apologies for not being on the same page as you all. What we've done is certainly a good first step in that direction, but we do still have some work to do to support fully customizable nested wheels. As always, I am hesitant because I'm afraid it might make things over-complicated, so when we implement it we need to come up with a good solution so that it's not confusing. That said, I can certainly see the benefits. We'll get there.

[ZeroX9876]

@kmoney

"I know over in the HS community they have been wanting this feature for years. "

THIS! I've switched to Launchbox in December 2016 and instantly bought Big Box when looking at the Issues Section for the nested filters. Hyperspin didn't received any substantial updates in years and it's too bad because people will start to switch to something more modern looking (AKA Launchbox!).

My goal is to make a sub wheel of "Official USA Complete Rom Set", "Official JPN Complete rom set", "Translated Rom set", Hacked and Mods Set", etc. Having sub-wheels like how @DJQuad described it in the first post is EXACTLY what Iv'e been waiting for. 

Jason already did a Superb job in bringing us what we really wants and this is what's making launchbox so special and rich featured! Worth every penny of the $20 I spent for it and will surely be upgrading to the forever licence as soon as this feature gets out

[pasteko]

Since day one I'm  waiting for this feature, being able to create and manage folders the way I want, there's not one single thing more important on this list :

- Different themes for each platform in Big Box
- Better Pinball Support
- Big Box Select Random Game
- Big Box Wall View
- Community Star Ratings in LaunchBox and Big Box
- Big Box User Profiles/Kid Mode with content restrictions
- Built-in PDF reader for Big Box
- Big Box ROM Extraction Progress Indicator
- Retroarch Netplay Integration
- Big Box Startup Videos Overhaul
- Big Box RSS News Feed
- Big Box Trackball/Spinner Wheel Control
- Big Box Touch Screen Support
- Duplicate Image Parsing/Prevention
- Text to Speech
- Background Update Downloads
- LaunchBox Games Database Improvements
- LaunchBox Arcade VR
- Big Box Plugin Support
- Retro Achievements Integration

These are all cosmetic or secondary improvements, nested folders are needed to organize the roms, just like in the file explorer, please at least add it the poll.

 

 

Edited April 15, 2017 by pasteko

[Lordmonkus]

After playing with the custom playlists all that is really needed is to just add the ability to create folders in the playlists that would/could then hold another folder and other playlists.

[DJQuad]

On 4/15/2017 at 10:25 AM, Jason Carr said:

I see; I hear you guys. My apologies for not being on the same page as you all. What we've done is certainly a good first step in that direction, but we do still have some work to do to support fully customizable nested wheels. As always, I am hesitant because I'm afraid it might make things over-complicated, so when we implement it we need to come up with a good solution so that it's not confusing. That said, I can certainly see the benefits. We'll get there.

Yep that's why I kept stressing that while nested filters was in development we should really consider supporting multiwheels within that UI.

The UI is obviously key to make it simple. I think something that looks like a folder tree view similar to Windows Explorer would be best. The wheel structure on a left pane and the queries & results on a right pane.

The only major thing I can think of is the ability to specify what image is associated for each wheel element. For example, If I want platform families as a top level, generic logos like Nintendo, Atari, Sega, etc would need to be specified. Even something like Early 80s Classics, Shooters, or whatever else like what @ZeroX9876 mentioned want to use -- It'd be up to the user or community to create those.

Wheels could be sharable to the community like playlists are as well.

Edited April 16, 2017 by DJQuad

[viking]

The approach that seems to me the most complete will be a drag&drop module, identical to WordPress menu tool. In a single interface, we could manage all platform, playlists, sub-menu and control the display order !

In "menu" panel, we can :

• Drag&drop platform and choose their order.
• Creat Sub-Menu, drag&drop and choose their order.
• Creat Playlist, drag&drop and choose their order.

To populate playlist, in LaunchBox, "right click on a game" > "add to PlayList" > "Playlist X"

And the bonus feature, a checkbox by Platform to display it (or not) in BigBox. This will be a perfect way to use LaunchBox as a back office for Arcade cabinet users. That way, platforms still needing work will not be visible in BigBox.

If each su-menu or playlist is customizable, it will fulfill all your wishes. In fact, I think this principle will cover all the possibility of sorting.

For those who have never used the WordPress back office, here is a video showing the MENU option panel. Imagine this principle in LaunchBox. The power of the tools !!!! Video Exemple

What do you think ?

[DJQuad]

Yep I was thinking something like 

 

[ZeroX9876]

submenus are a must in BigBox also!

When choosing a platform, if we could choose which sub-wheel pops out in BigBox that would be Epic!

Like per Example:

Nintendo Entertainment System ---> North American Official Romset

                                                          ----> Japan Official Romset

                                                          ----> Translated and hack roms

                                                          -----> Coop Games

 

Those are the kind of subwheels I would like! plus if we could share said sub-wheels with others via the games DB, I would ditch Hyperspin right away and never ever open it again.

Launchbox would be the absolute master in retro game interface for me if such a feature comes in. @Jason Carr if you can make it happen, I think a LOT of cabinet owners will be pleased from it  

 

But again, each of the updates that came out recently were phenomenal! continue your great work, it's really appreciated.

 

Edited April 21, 2017 by ZeroX9876

[BlackSol]

This is what I've wanted in a frontend ever since I started messing with HS. I was told it was possible with RetroFE, but I lost interest in that FE when I found out about LB.