Speeding up appearance of images? (And a couple of other questions.)

[Asterra]

I've tried out four themes now, including the default.  All of them, when I scroll the wheel by one unit, do the same thing with images, with the same exact timings:

1. Scroll the wheel.  Smooth, 60fps, takes about 0.33 seconds to stop on the new entry.

2. Rotate/fade image 1 into visibility, or else make it appear without rotating/fading.  Rotating/fading also takes 0.33 seconds, but in any event doesn't begin until 0.5 seconds.

3. Rotate/fade image 2 into visibility, or else make it appear without rotating/fading (if applicable).  This also takes 0.33 seconds, but doesn't begin until 1.0 seconds, even if the first image didn't rotate/fade.

So, for example, the FutureState theme, in its vertical wheel art variant, will rotate the wheel, wait until 0.5 seconds, make the flyer appear in the lower-left corner, wait 0.5 seconds, and then begin fading in alternative art as the background.

Basically what it looks like is that the menu system either cannot or by-design refuses to do several things at once, or at least in tight sequence.  Or it could be that the methodology of creating themes for BigBox lends itself defacto to giving everything this visually satisfying yet functionally bankrupt 1-2-3 presentation.  On the other hand, a text-only variant of FutureState is able to display the screenshot immediately, possibly because the text does not need to visibly rotate, meaning the screenshot does not need to "wait its turn."

So I suppose this is a two-pronged question.  First, is this just how BigBox works?  Everything absolutely needs to take turns like this?  Second, if that is the case, then is it at least possible to force a graphical wheel to skip the smooth-rotation process and just blink to the new game?  That should, if I'm judging things correctly, permit the next graphic to appear immediately.

While I am on this topic, I have to ask whether themes (user-made or otherwise) in BigBox have their own customization menu.  Cycling through presets is one thing, but what if, say, I don't _want_ graphics to waste time doing a fancy rotate?  Some things look good but aren't all that useful when you're trying to pick from thousands.  The front end I most recently tinkered with, AttractMode, gave theme creators the option to institute user customization, accessible from the menu.  It's the kind of thing that sounds frankly obvious, so I have to suspect I'm simply overlooking it.

Last question, I promise: If I tell BigBox to pre-cache wheel images, is this "very long" process a one-time deal that it won't have to repeat when I restart, or does it lose that effort when I exit?

[SentaiBrad]

What it sounds like is you haven't let your system cache all of the images yet, and that is probably what is creating all the pop-in. There is an option in the BB menu to force the cache for all images. It could take a while depending on the speed of your drive and size of your library and media, but I would try and get an entire system cached manually first or force the cache in the options and then check afterwards. The cache will repeat any time you make changes to a games images or change the quality selector for those images in Big Box. If you cache them at 100% and change them to 70%, they need to be cached again. If your PC isn't able to keep up with all the media after the force cache, you can try lowering the quality of the images (but you'll need to re-cache) and or change the quality and type of transition in the BB menu as well. Changing it to a different less demanding transition also helps. Different themes will also help, with the default being middle of the road, and something like CriticalZone being more high end. There are some less demanding themes that you can also test once it's all cached or set up.

[Asterra]

44 minutes ago, SentaiBrad said:

What it sounds like is you haven't let your system cache all of the images yet, and that is probably what is creating all the pop-in.

I'm trying not to be confusing.  There is a difference between the stutter caused by realtime caching and the deliberately-paced image pop-in that I took pains to describe.

Take a look here: 

 

[/spoiler]

Watch when he scrolls the wheel.  The progression is as I described above.  Scroll, 0.5 seconds, screenshot appears, 0.5 seconds, other art appears.  The issue being that if I'm trying to decide on something random to play based on visual input, the logo by itself is not adequate, but a screenshot or other visuals could be.  Far better to be able to get that information as fast as one taps a button.

Now, as detailed before, this theme has a variant that is the same as in that video, but instead of graphical logos, the list is simple text.  You press down and it instantly jumps to the next title without animating the list.  In this variant, the screenshot does pop up immediately, followed of course by the rest of the artwork in the usual staggered fashion.  Let's be clear here: The timing is 100% reliable, deliberate, and not the result of caching or bandwidth clogging.

I return to my earlier questions: Is this the result of hardcoded limitations in how BigBox can be set up to display assets, or is there a defacto stylized reason why every theme seems to do the same exact staggered look?  And if it's the latter, how might I go about killing those asset delays so I can make something that would be of use to me? ;p

 

Edited June 20, 2017 by Asterra

[SentaiBrad]

So, the entire background portion is a recorded video of a HS theme thats set up, so the way the art fly's in and fades in, is all recorded like that. If you play that video outside of BB, I would be willing to bet that this portion plays exactly the same. The bottom left image showing up instantly is probably normal based on the theme. You could use any video in that spot if you don't like them, and you can also change around the Transitions as well to change how it's transitioning, but I honestly don't see anything wrong with that set up. I watched the area you linked to twice, and it honestly looks normal to me.

[Asterra]

2 minutes ago, SentaiBrad said:

You could use any video in that spot if you don't like them, and you can also change around the Transitions as well to change how it's transitioning, but I honestly don't see anything wrong with that set up. I watched the area you linked to twice, and it honestly looks normal to me.

I had to edit in the rest of my post because the editor killed everything after the YT link.  It elaborated what I was trying to highlight.

I will simplify my main concern:  You see the first asset to appear?  The screenshot in the lower-left?  This is not part of the video.  It is a separate asset, and appears even with no video asset to load, as my current setup confirms.  Watch how it waits for the wheel to stop animating before making its appearance.  Let's ignore for the moment that this happens in every theme I've examined.  What I want to do is make it appear with no delay, even though the wheel is still animating.  At this stage I just want to see this done in order to confirm that this phenomenon is not the result of a limitation of the front end.

[Lordmonkus]

Turn off animations.

[Asterra]

6 minutes ago, lordmonkus said:

Turn off animations.

I'll try it, thanks.  For now, I'm not seeing "animations" in any of the text in the entire menu so I haven't found the correct navigation option.

[SentaiBrad]

If you go back in to the Big Box menu, then to options, there is an Transitions option. I mentioned about editing this in one of my earlier posts.

[Asterra]

9 minutes ago, SentaiBrad said:

If you go back in to the Big Box menu, then to options, there is an Transitions option. I mentioned about editing this in one of my earlier posts.

I already tried tinkering with those.  I changed every last one of them to "none".  The only effect this had on any aspect of the theme was to cause the background animation to vanish rather than fading to the new animation.  The new animation still appears with the same delayed timing, and the lower-left corner flyer image also still appears the same 0.5 seconds after choosing a new game.

I briefly thought I might be onto something when I spotted "Minimum Startup Video Duration", but that was already set to "No Delay".

[SentaiBrad]

The Startup video duration only controls a Big Box Startup Video.

[Asterra]

Just now, SentaiBrad said:

The Startup video duration only controls a Big Box Startup Video.

I see.  Well, what I'm gathering is that the timed delays for the various visual assets are indeed hardwired.  The flyer art, which is what appears in the lower-left in FutureState's Games List View called "Vertical Wheel 1", has a built-in delay of 0.5 seconds.  Switching to the Games List View called "Text List With Details", the flyer art has been moved to the upper-left, and now in the lower-left we have the game's screenshot, which has a delay of 0.0 seconds -- instantaneous.  So in that Games List View, the screenshot pops in immediately, followed 0.5 seconds later by the flyer art, right on time, and then the other artwork 1.0 seconds later.  There is nothing that can be changed in the menus that has any impact on these timings.

I wanted to say a workaround would be to tweak the Vertical Wheel 1 view so that it displays the screenshot instead of, or in addition to, the flyer art, but it's probably best if I take time to come to grips with what I've learned so far.

[lunatuna]

@Asterra - I'd love to know if you ever figured out anything around this. I also had an attract-mode pre--built image and it was super snappy and just immediately responsive when flipping through games. I'd prefer to use LB/BB for this as its much easier than programming .nut files in Attract-mode - but this definitely makes it not appear as responsive and as snappy.