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BIGFLIX: A new user experience for your HTPC


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On 7/24/2017 at 8:49 PM, WarMFusioN said:

@SNAK3ATER, Great theme!!!

But I noticed a lot of my box art overlap. (dreamcast, gba, n64, psx...)

Also, I when I scroll through my games I get multiple buffering graphics overlapping on each other.

See both issues in attached image.

Do I have something set up wrong?

Big flix overlaping boxes and buffering graphic.png

No your setup is fine @WarMFusioN, that was intentional from my part 

Guys i'm not sure if you are aware but the views of this theme were designed for a specific design ethos; that means a view might look beautiful for certain platforms but not for every platform.

When I designed this theme I had three design sketches in mind: 1- Banner/Fanart view 2- Boxart view 3- List view

To have a rundown of how this theme should be setup, consider the example below that is based on my personal setup:

1- Banner/Fanart Views (Platform Views 1-3 and Games Horizontal View 1 and 3):

These views were designed for platforms that has HD 16:9 videos, Game fanart backgrounds and Banner/screenshots media files. This view looks great on certain platforms that has the aforementioned media files such as Windows, Wii U, Wii, Wii wares and Arcade (provided you downloaded the Bigbox Cinematix games themes). Also if you downloaded HD 16:9 Game themes videos from various community members here (Sega Genesis, SNES, NES, PS1, etc) then these views will look beautiful on these platforms as well.

Desktop_07_11.2017_-_17_13_15_01.thumb.png.56565c9a1b57dbe41cfb0b801a2b7f10.pngDesktop_06_30.2017_-_09_13_08_04.thumb.png.c9c5d0e70a5a40e5620890181e709711.pngDesktop_07_12.2017_-_02_06.05_12.thumb.png.ae1c9166410d478194af49a76b05aca1.png2- Boxart Views (Games Horizontal View 2 Coverflow view and Coverflow with details views)

Due to the different Boxart shapes and sizes for different systems (i.e Square PS1 Boxart vs. Long rectangle PS2 Boxart) These views were designed for certain platforms that fits a certain criteria which means there will be compatibility issues with other platforms that does not fit the view's criteria.

The Horizontal View 2 was designed for platforms that has Long front Boxart such as Sega Genesis, saturn, Nintendo NES, Gamecube, wii, Wii U, PS2, etc.. Thus platforms with odd Boxart shapes such as Sega dreamcast, N64, SNES, PS1, etc would not look nice as the boxarts would overlap with each other.

Desktop_06_30.2017_-_08_21_13_02.thumb.png.65d69785592530f3c4563471fe91686a.pngDesktop_07_12.2017_-_02_01_55_09.thumb.png.52227fa81b192cfe633d3277c40d741b.pngFor the rest of the platforms that has an odd boxart shape I designed Coverflow games with details view and Coverflow view. These two views should look nice with most of the platforms in your setup and has the best compatibility for various platforms:

Desktop_07_25.2017_-_21_21_32_10.thumb.png.95df2b0ee3a4f5672a546b663a46f89a.png5977ab660a458_Desktop07_26.2017-00_33_15_23.thumb.png.e0b6f258aff6f848331107590244c2bf.pngDesktop_07_26.2017_-_00_33_58_24.thumb.png.23d7f2609adfa3c0a49540e85b4d002c.pngDesktop_07_13.2017_-_00_00_00_10.thumb.png.b2a50e97c5f49f94360d5865e9a16dba.png3- List View:

This view is designed to be compatible with all of the platforms in your setup, the only requirement for this view is to have Game videos be it 4:3 or 16:9

The square design of the video snap in this view means it would look beautiful with platforms that has 4:3 video snaps but it should also look fine with 16:9 videos as those will be stretched to fill the entire border

5977adfb81dfa_Desktop06_24.2017-05_54_26_04.thumb.png.731d7b4007a22be6cc66c8def1aa2546.png

1 hour ago, Thatman84 said:

Awesome run down @SNAK3ATER. Many thanks

Maybe a little copy and paste or link that post in the theme download for future reference.

Yeah will definitely update the Theme download page with a FAQ and tutorial sections once BIGFLIX v1.1 is out, thanks for the suggestion!

Edited by SNAK3ATER
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This is exactly why i hope theme specific game covers is a feature we might see soon :) .  This and Grilas   BigForce Theme relies heavily or looks better with vertical DVD style covers.   And they aren't hard to find but switching out all covers for a theme and then switching back when using a different theme wouldn't be fun. 

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18 minutes ago, ALIE said:

This is exactly why i hope theme specific game covers is a feature we might see soon :) .  This and Grilas   BigForce Theme relies heavily or looks better with vertical DVD style covers.   And they aren't hard to find but switching out all covers for a theme and then switching back when using a different theme wouldn't be fun. 

True that @ALIE, Theme specific game covers is a much requested feature as it will save theme creators the trouble and headache of allocating what views available for what game medias.

With regards to BIGFLIX I tried to design different views to cater to different game media files but offcourse some compatibility issue would arise as some views were not designed for specific media files..A prominent example would be Games Horizontal view 2, this view was designed with vertical DVD style covers in mind so obviously any cover that has an odd shape would not look nice as covers would overlap.

Can this be fixed? Yes, it could be fixed but then the view would deviate away from my original design vision of this view. Here is an example to illustrate my point:

My original vision for Horizontal Games view 2 (designed for vertical DVD style cover platforms)

Desktop_07_25.2017_-_21_22_46_11.thumb.png.b6a3321dcea400c11b2a7ed01d4746a2.pngHere is how this view would look if platforms with odd game covers styles is used (lets use Dreamcast in this example)

Desktop_07_25.2017_-_21_14_47_01.thumb.png.e463e8a2514cb047e8a5fdab97d9cce5.pngThe boxes overlap due to the spacing values that were set specifically for Vertical DVD covers styles. Can it be fixed? Technically Yes, here is the Horizontal view 2 with the fix:

Desktop_07_25.2017_-_23_37_27_21.thumb.png.a062e11a721fd0539ec3742e7aca901d.pngThat's great Snake, but why wasn't this included in the official BIGFLIX 1.0? The answer is that yes although it would fix the spacing between odd shaped cover styles it would not look as good with vertical DVD cover styles which was the whole purpose of the design of this view. Here's how the view would look with Vertical DVD cover styles after applying the fix:

Desktop_07_25.2017_-_23_38_02_22.thumb.png.91922d2278d9f7ab14af0046d7909b7c.pngThere is alot of empty spacing between vertical DVD style covers which goes against my design ethos thus it was a small comprise I had to make in order to stick with my original vision 

Hope this helps with why I went with this route for Horizontal Games View 2 :)

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On 7/21/2017 at 8:14 PM, SNAK3ATER said:

So I tried my luck today and created some platform banners for BIGFLIX since the theme doesn't have a banner set

I'm still novice when it comes to artwork development and this is my first attempt at creating banners so go easy on me will ya? :P

Windows5.thumb.png.98ecaefa8214b26d32a21f6a60997fc0.pngWii2.thumb.png.06f93094a1ebcc046ef27af74b219b56.pngsnes2.thumb.png.2e2b30f09e54bcd2408d36dba278ee2e.pngPS2a.thumb.png.4f0d6a6e4edcdd04f1b782b1e5726a8d.pngI also created an alternative version that has BIGFLIX logo on top left similar to how Netflix banners are presented

Gamcube.thumb.png.31878351af565f625b053913fc429b2a.pngWhat do you guys think?

got any more?

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43 minutes ago, kerszr said:

got any more?

Yeah I'm working on creating an official set for the upcoming BIGFLIX 1.1 but I'm having challenges finding hi-res images for older platforms like Amiga for example

 

If anyone could guide me on where to get Hi-res wallpapers for retro games/systems that would help me a lot!

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  • 1 month later...

hi, I love this theme!

I have a question however, I downloaded this theme recently and it works good.
but I Wonder if it is possible to have the element that is responsible of displaying artwork in right corner background, to not squish images.
it forces the image to be displayed in a 16:9 aspect ration. SO If I want to display for instance box art, it gets squashed.

My idea is, to center the image and match the element width, but leave the height in tact.
that way widescreen wallpaper would still be displayed properly, and box art would be displayed showing only a portion of the box, focused on the middle.

Does that make sense to you ?

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  • 1 month later...

I have another question.. the Nintendo DS Video's are squished. could video's be scaled the a certain width but keep the aspect ratio ? what i mean is, nintendo DS video's are 480 x 720 but are displayed as 480x360.

I really like this theme. and I'm just making suggestions that would in my opinion make it better. same goes for the boxart being used as fan backgrounds,  that I mentioned above.

I'll fire up photoshop this evening to illustrate what i mean.
@SNAK3ATER

Edited by Klopjero
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/27/2017 at 8:09 PM, psych0matt said:

Is there a way to disable the autohide feature? I have mine start directly into playlists, and if possible I'd like the horizontal list of consoles to stay on screen. I didn't see a setting for it.

At this moment there isn't a setting for that, but @Jason will most likely add that in. Launchbox/bigbox is growing very fast and its amazing that @Jason being the main developer has done and added to launchbox/bigbox.

Edited by ea4492
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8 hours ago, ea4492 said:

At this moment there isn't a setting for that, but @Jason will most likely add that in. Launchbox/bigbox is growing very fast and its amazing that @Jason being the main developer has done and added to launchbox/bigbox.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that this will ever happen as things such the Autohide stuff are hardcoded in the theme code itself and aren’t controlled by BigBox.

 

@psych0matt

You would need to edit the theme code for that and remove the trigger that causes the autohide. @SNAK3ATER should be able to tell you which line you have to remove :)

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1 hour ago, CriticalCid said:

 

Unfortunately, I don’t think that this will ever happen as things such the Autohide stuff are hardcoded in the theme code itself and aren’t controlled by BigBox.

 

@psych0matt

You would need to edit the theme code for that and remove the trigger that causes the autohide. @SNAK3ATER should be able to tell you which line you have to remove :)

Yep, this is what I was after, sorry if I wasn't clear! 

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  • 1 month later...

Hello everyone,

It's been a while since I was active and after a long hiatus from theme development I decided to resume my work again.

Launchbox and Bigbox have seen a rapid development the last few months and I have alot to catch up to and familiarize myself with...here is something I created today after messing around with the new wall view:

Desktop_Screenshot_2017_12.17_-_22.03_12_63.thumb.png.b4bccea2107160e3ed89031954b78fd7.pngDesktop_Screenshot_2017_12.17_-_22_07_47_66.thumb.png.6589b9df0613399785c898b7c24a698b.pngDesktop_Screenshot_2017_12.17_-_22_19_36_67.thumb.png.61894125d7e4138ca1c4e388a10b341b.png

What do you guys think :)? any feedback in further improving this theme and my other projects are appreciated and just for your information here is a roadmap for my upcoming projects:

1- Bigflix 1.1

2- Bigflix 1.1 Alternative (This version will implement some of the requests I received like keeping the original aspect ratios of videos and wallpapers, removing timer/buffer animations, etc)

3- RetrAO Cafe 1.7 (I promise this will be a major update will lots of added features and views)

4- RetAO Cafe 1.7 Lite (As the name suggests this will be light on system resources but will enjoy the added features of the original theme)

5- Project X Zone (WIP new theme i've been developing for a while)

 

Stay tuned for new updates!

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